Journal of Pain Research (Oct 2020)
Transcriptome Analysis of Dorsal Root Ganglion in Rats with Knee Joint Inflammation
Abstract
Qian Bai,1 Jing Cao,2 Tieli Dong,1 Feng Tao3 1Department of Anesthesiology, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Henan, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Anatomy, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Zhengzhou University, Henan, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Biomedical Sciences, Texas A&M University College of Dentistry, Dallas, Texas, USACorrespondence: Tieli DongThe Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Henan, People’s Republic of ChinaEmail [email protected] TaoTexas A&M University College of Dentistry, Dallas, Texas, USAEmail [email protected]: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) leads to pain through alteration of gene expression. Although gene expression alteration in knee cartilage or peripheral blood from RA patients has been identified using microarray, it remains unclear whether long non-coding RNA (lncRNA)-mediated gene regulation occurs in primary sensory neurons of dorsal root ganglia (DRG) during RA-like joint inflammation. In the present study, we aimed to analyze lncRNA and related mRNA profiles in the DRG in a knee joint inflammation rat model.Methods: Complete Freund’s adjuvant (CFA) was injected in the rat knee joint for preparing the joint inflammation model. A lncRNA-mRNA microarray of rat DRG was employed for transcriptome analysis. Functional roles of differentially expressed lncRNAs and their related mRNAs in the injured DRG were delineated by bioinformatic analysis.Results: We observed that expression levels of 9000 lncRNAs were altered on day 7 post-CFA, of which 45.17% were up-regulated and 54.83% were down-regulated. Specifically, 69 lncRNAs (42 up and 27 down) were significantly regulated. We also observed that expression levels of 13,744 mRNAs were altered on day 7 post-CFA, of which 49.67% were up-regulated and 50.33% were down-regulated. Specifically, 102 mRNAs (51 up and 51 down) were significantly regulated. Using quantitative real-time PCR, we verified the changes in differentially expressed lncRNAs in the injured DRG.Conclusion: These results suggest that microarray-based RNA sequencing can be used to identify altered lncRNAs and relevant mRNAs in the DRG of rats with knee joint inflammation.Keywords: joint inflammation, dorsal root ganglion, transcriptome analysis
