Gene Expression Profiling in Preterm Infants: New Aspects of Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia Development

RATIONALE: Bronchopulmonary dysplasia is one of the most serious complications observed in premature infants. Thanks to microarray technique, expression of nearly all human genes can be reliably evaluated. OBJECTIVE: To compare whole genome expression in the first month of life in groups of infants with and without bronchopulmonary dysplasia. METHODS: 111 newborns were included in the study. The mean birth weight was 1029g (SD:290), and the mean gestational age was 27.8 weeks (SD:2.5). Blood samples were drawn from the study participants on the 5th, 14th and 28th day of life. The mRNA samples were evaluated for gene expression with the use of GeneChip® Human Gene 1.0 ST microarrays. The infants were divided into two groups: bronchopulmonary dysplasia (n=68) and control (n=43). RESULTS: Overall 2086 genes were differentially expressed on the day 5, only 324 on the day 14 and 3498 on the day 28. Based on pathway enrichment analysis we found that the cell cycle pathway was up-regulated in the bronchopulmonary dysplasia group. The activation of this pathway does not seem to be related with the maturity of the infant. Four pathways related to inflammatory response were continuously on the 5(th), 14(th) and 28(th) day of life down-regulated in the bronchopulmonary dysplasia group. However, the expression of genes depended on both factors: immaturity and disease severity. The most significantly down-regulated pathway was the T cell receptor signaling pathway. CONCLUSION: The results of the whole genome expression study revealed alteration of the expression of nearly 10% of the genome in bronchopulmonary dysplasia patients.