Identification of Genes Differentially Expressed in Canine Vasospastic Cerebral Arteries after Subarachnoid Hemorrhage

Abstract

Recently, a number of molecular biological techniques have been applied in the studies of cerebral vasospasm [2]. Most of the previous studies have focused on some known genes encoding related factors such as vasoconstriction agonists or antagonists. A single cell is estimated to express ~15,000 genes, of which several hundreds are thought to play some tissue-specific roles in the cell. However, since most of them are unknown and have not yet been characterized, it is important to identify the unknown genes which could be involved in the pathogenesis of cerebtral vasospasm. In this study, as a first step to better understand the whole molecular process of cerebral vasospasm, the two molecular biological techniques of cDNA expression array and mRNA differential display [3] were applied to identify differentially expressed genes during cerebral vasospasm.