Project description:Hypertension is a risk factor for brain damage. Here we tested whether protection of the brain depends on the type of antihypertensive medication. We compared normotensive rats to untreated hypertensive rats and hypertensive rats treated with either amlodipine or atenolol. After one year treatment we sampled CSF for broad screening of brain damage markers using proteomic analysis. The hypothesis is that the drug amlodipine (a vasodilator) is more protective for the brain than atenolol (a beta-blocker that mainly acts on the heart) and this would show up in CSF protein profiles. Both systolic and diastolic blood pressure were increased in hypertensive rats in comparison to their normotensive controls, and both medications lowered blood pressure as compared to untreated SHR rats. The analysis of the CSF proteome revealed that hypertension resulted in alterations to processes associated with the development of the central nervous system, as well as with inflammation and blood coagulation. The latter included proteins such as YKL-40, KNG1, DAG1, and members of the Serpin family. Amlodipine treatment resulted in changes to proteins involved in gas transport (including CA2, HBB, and HBA1), whereas atenolol treatment had no significant effect on any biological pathway. A comparison of the two antihypertensive treatments revealed alterations in pathways associated with cell adhesion, central nervous system development, and vascular development.
Project description:This study delineated how small intestinal resident microflora impact gene expression in Paneth cells. Keywords: functional genomics; transcriptional profiling
