Cord Blood Gene Expression in Infants Hospitalized with Respiratory Syncytial Virus Bronchiolitis
1Faculty Division, Department of Pediatrics, and 2Institute of Clinical Epidemiology and Molecular Biology, Akershus University Hospital, University of Oslo, and 3Norwegian Computing Center, Oslo, Norway
Background.
Only a few infants develop acute bronchiolitis when exposed to respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), and host, environmental, and viral properties are probably all of importance in determining the severity of infection.
Methods.Microarray analysis was used to identify differentially expressed single genes and gene sets in cord blood from 5 infants hospitalized with RSV bronchiolitis versus cord blood from 5 control infants exposed to RSV without bronchiolitis during infancy. Quantitative real‐time polymerase chain reaction (QRT‐PCR) was performed on single genes in both the 5 infants selected for microarray analysis and 13 more infants hospitalized with the same disease. Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) was performed to identify differentially expressed gene sets within the microarray experiments.
Results.Microarray analysis identified 15 single genes to be significantly differentially expressed between case and control infants. Eleven of these genes were evaluated with QRT‐PCR, and the genes FAM102A, TNFRSF25, and STMN3 were down‐regulated in all but 1 of the 18 infants. A pathway involved in regulation of the actin cytoskeleton was found to be clearly down‐regulated when analyzed with GSEA.
Conclusions.FAM102A, TNFRSF25, and STMN3 and a pathway involved in regulation of the actin cytoskeleton are down‐regulated in cord blood from infants hospitalized with RSV bronchiolitis.
Received 20 November 2006; accepted 21 February 2007; electronically published 20 June 2007.
-
Potential conflicts of interest: none reported.
Financial support: Akershus University Hospital (internal research funds); Research Council of Norway (grant 154079/420, Statistical Analysis of Risk).