Gene Expression Analysis Reveals the Cell Cycle and Kinetochore Genes Participating in Ischemia Reperfusion Injury and Early Development in Kidney

BACKGROUND: The molecular mechanisms that mediate the ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury in kidney are not completely understood. It is also largely unknown whether such mechanisms overlap with those governing the early development of kidney. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We performed gene expression analysis to investigate the transcriptome changes during regeneration after I/R injury in the rat (0 hr, 6 hr, 24 hr, and 120 hr after reperfusion) and early development of mouse kidney (embryonic day 16 p.c. and postnatal 1 and 7 day). Pathway analysis revealed a wide spectrum of molecular functions that may participate in the regeneration and developmental processes of kidney as well as the functional association between them. While the genes associated with cell cycle, immunity, inflammation, and apoptosis were globally activated during the regeneration after I/R injury, the genes encoding various transporters and metabolic enzymes were down-regulated. We also observed that these injury-associated molecular functions largely overlap with those of early kidney development. In particular, the up-regulation of kinases and kinesins with roles in cell division was common during regeneration and early developmental kidney as validated by real-time PCR and immunohistochemistry. CONCLUSIONS: In addition to the candidate genes whose up-regulation constitutes an overlapping expression signature between kidney regeneration and development, this study lays a foundation for studying the functional relationship between two biological processes.