Increased expression of the hypoxia-related genes in peripheral blood leukocytes of human subjects with acute ischemic stroke

Abstract

Objective The present study was carried out to determine whether the peripheral blood leukocytes in patients with acute ischemic stroke show changes in expression of genes that are involved in the response to hypoxia. Methods RNA expression was examined in peripheral blood cells from subjects at day 1, week 1 and week 3 after acute ischemic stroke, subjects with motor neurone disease and healthy controls. A human quantitative polymerase chain reaction array kit containing 84 different hypoxia pathway-related genes was used in the primary screening of biological triplicates from each time-point after stroke. Results Of these 84 genes, 15 showed more than twofold upregulation on one or more days after stroke, and one showed more than twofold downregulation. A total of 12 of these 84 genes were selected for further assessment in 37 stroke patients, 22 subjects with motor neurone disease and 19 healthy controls. There was significant upregulation of hypoxia-related genes after stroke. The upregulated genes were ADM, HIF3A, VEGFA, NPY, BIRC5 and ECE1. Conclusions The upregulation of hypoxia-related genes in peripheral blood cells after acute ischemic stroke could affect the function and contribute to the activation of these cells. © 2014 Japanese Society for Neuroimmunology.