Microarray analysis of retroviral restriction factor gene expression in response to porcine endogenous retrovirus infection

Abstract

Microarray analysis has been used for screening genes involved in specific biological processes. Many studies have shown that restriction factors may play an important role in xenotransplantation safety, but it is still unclear whether porcine endogenous retroviruses (PERVs) may be inhibited by these factors. Therefore, the present study focused on the microarray analysis retroviral restriction factors gene expression in normal human dermal fibroblasts (NHDFs) in response to PERVs. PERV infectivity was analyzed using a co-culture system of NHDFs and porcine kidney epithelial cells (PK15 cell line). Detection of the copy number of PERV A, PERV B DNA and PERV A, PERV B RNA was performed using real-time Q-PCR and QRT-PCR. The expression of retroviral restriction factor genes was compared between PERV-infected and uninfected NHDF cells using oligonucleotide microarray. The up-regulated transcripts were recorded for two differentially expressed genes (TRIM1, TRIM16) with the use of GeneSpring platform and Significance Analysis of Microarrays. In conclusion, our results suggest that the TRIM family may play an important role in innate immunity to PERV infection. These results can allow a better understanding of restriction mechanism of PERV infection and probably design molecularly targeted therapies in the future. Moreover, knowledge of retroviral restriction factor gene expression in human cells may help to uncover strategies for determining their exact function. Microarray analyses seem to be promising in biological and biomedical studies, however, these results should be further confirmed by research conducted at the protein level.