Journal of Heredity Advance Access originally published online on September 8, 2005
Journal of Heredity 2005 96(7):821-828; doi:10.1093/jhered/esi105
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Genes in Canine Articular Cartilage That Respond to Mechanical Injury: Gene Expression Studies With Affymetrix Canine GeneChip
From the Baker Institute for Animal Health (Burton-Wurster, Clements, Mateescu, Scarpino and Lust); Department of Clinical Sciences (Todhunter), College of Veterinary Medicine, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853; and Theory Center, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853 (Sun). K. M. Clements is currently at AstraZeneca, Alderley Park, Macclesfield, Cheshire, UK SK10 4TG
Address correspondence to N. Burton-Wurster, PhD, at the address above, or e-mail: niw1{at}cornell.edu.
The Affymetrix canine GeneChip with 23,836 probe sets was used to look for cartilage genes that are significantly altered in response to mechanical impact. The model using canine articular cartilage explants loaded in vitro has been described previously (Chen et al., J Orthop Res 19:703711, 2001). It is our hypothesis that genes that are activated or repressed in articular cartilage after impact injury initiate cartilage degeneration, leading to osteoarthritis in dogs. Gene expression of known cartilage genes was generally consistent with cartilage biology. A total of 528 genes were significantly (P < .01) up- or down- regulated in response to mechanical damage. After applying the strict Bonferroni correction, 172 remained significantly affected. One of these genes, MIG-6/gene 33, was chosen for verification by real- time quantitative reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). A 3.8- fold increase in expression was confirmed, consistent with the microarray chip data. Deficiencies in the current annotation of the canine chip are discussed. Gene expression studies with the Affymetrix canine GeneChip are potentially valuable, but await more complete annotation.