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Basic |
Department of Medicine,1 McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada; Department of Internal Medicine,2 Seoul National University Hospital, Seoul, Korea
Correspondence to: P. Margetts, 50 Charlton Avenue East, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, L8N 4A6 Canada. margetts{at}mcmaster.ca
Objective: To analyze gene expression of localized
peritoneal tissue structures in a rodent model of peritoneal fibrosis.
Methods: Female Sprague Dawley rats were treated with
an intraperitoneal injection of an adenovirus expressing active transforming
growth factor-beta or control adenovirus. Four and 7 days after infection,
animals were sacrificed and frozen sections of parietal peritoneum were
subjected to immunofluorescence-aided laser capture microdissection in order
to isolate vascular, mesothelial, and submesothelial structures. RNA was
extracted from microdissected tissue and gene expression was analyzed by
quantitative reverse-transcript polymerase chain reaction. We analyzed genes
involved in angiogenesis, epithelial-to-mesenchymal transdifferentiation, and
fibrosis. Vascular endothelial growth factor and alpha-smooth muscle actin
expression was analyzed with immunohistochemistry of formalin-fixed
tissue.
Results: Transforming growth factor-β1
induced expression of Snail and alpha-smooth muscle actin genes in
the peritoneal mesothelium. This same cell population also demonstrated
increased gene expression of vascular endothelial growth factor. The
distribution of this growth factor was confirmed by immunohistochemistry. The
fibrogenic growth factor, connective tissue growth factor, was also strongly
induced in the peritoneal mesothelium.
Conclusions: Using immunofluorescence-aided laser
capture microdissection, we were able to study gene expression in
subcompartments of the peritoneal tissue. We demonstrated that mesothelial
cells exhibiting mesenchymal transdifferentiation are associated with
increased expression of genes associated with fibrosis and
angiogenesis.
KEY WORDS: Peritoneal fibrosis; laser capture microdissection; transforming growth factor-beta; epithelial-to-mesenchymal transdifferentiation; vascular endothelial growth factor; angiogenesis.
Received 1 October 2007; accepted 27 February 2008.
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