Characterization of differentially expressed genes following brief cardiac ischemia

For the study of ischemia-related adaptations we employed DDRT-PCR on mRNA obtained from heart regions undergoing brief (10') occlusions/reperfusions. We found and sequenced 52 differentially expressed clones that we further characterized using Northern analysis with RNA from a wide variety of tissues. We selected only clones (1) with a new sequence, (2) that showed a Northern signal, and (3) that exhibited organ-specific (heart, muscle) or (4) situation-specific (ischemia, non-specific stress) expression. We found two new heart-specific transcripts and three new stress-inducible genes. The transcripts with known sequences showed an expression pattern typical for repair processes after ischemia-reperfusion (ubiquitin, ATPases). About 20% of clones were truly differentially expressed.