Comprehensive analysis of differential gene expression profiles on d-galactosamine-induced acute mouse liver injury and regeneration

Microarray analysis of RNA from d-galactosamine (GalN)-administered mouse livers was performed to establish a global gene expression profile during injury and regeneration stages at two different doses. A single dose of GalN at 266 or 26.6 mg/kg body weight was given intraperitoneally, and the liver samples were obtained after 6, 24, and 72 h. Histopathologic studies enabled the classification of the d-galactosamine effect into injury (6, 24 h) and regeneration (72 h) stages. By using the Applied Biosystems mouse genome survey microarray, a total of 7267 out of 33,315 (21.8%) genes were found to be statistically reliable at p < 0.05 by two-way ANOVA, and 1469 (4.4%) probes at false discovery rate <5% by significance analysis of microarray. Among the statistically reliable clones by both analytical methods, 389 genes were differentially expressed when compared with non-treated control, with more than a 1.625-fold difference (which equals 0.7 in log₂ scale) at one or more GalN treatment conditions and with less than 1.625-fold difference at all three vehicle-treated conditions. Three hundred thirty six genes and 13 genes were identified as injury- and regeneration-specific genes, respectively, showing that most of the transcriptomic changes were seen during the injury stage. Furthermore, multiple genes involved in protein synthesis and degradation, mRNA processing and binding, and cell cycle regulation showed variable transcript levels upon acute GalN administration.