Differential modulation of gene expression among rat tissues with warm ischemia

The aim of this study is to determine if warm ischemia after surgical extirpation impacts gene expression in tissue samples which will be used for cDNA array analysis. We investigated effects of warm ischemia on gene expression in lung, liver, kidney, and spleen of rats, chronologically, using an original cDNA array, real-time quantitative RT-PCR and immunohistochemistry. Although no visible alteration was found in RNA quality, cDNA array showed that expression of many genes was modulated by warm ischemia within 60 min in these tissues, 19.1% of the tested genes in lung, 11.0% in liver, 5.1% in kidney, and 16.2% in spleen. Quantitative RT-PCR revealed that warm ischemia significantly induced up-regulation of immediate early genes, c-fos, Egr-1, and c-jun, in lung, but not in liver. These findings suggest that genes may show tissue-dependent differential transcriptional response against warm ischemia. Tissue samples obtained from patients during surgery cannot completely escape effects of ischemia. In case of examination by cDNA array analysis, biologists should keep in mind that tissue samples come equipped with particular footprints.