Research Article Gene Expression Changes in Venous Segment of

Copyright © 2013 Yasuhiro Hashimoto et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Aim. The objective of this study was to characterize coordinated molecular changes in the structure and composition of the walls of venous segments of arteriovenous (AV) fistulas evoked by overflow.Methods. Venous tissue samples were collected from 6 hemo-dialysis patients with AV fistulas exposed to overflow and from the normal cephalic veins of 4 other hemodialysis patients. Total RNA was extracted from the venous tissue samples, and gene expression between the 2 groups was compared usingWhole Human Genome DNA microarray 44K. Microarray data were analyzed by GeneSpring GX software and Ingenuity Pathway Analysis. Results.The cDNAmicroarray analysis identified 397 upregulated genes and 456 downregulated genes. Gene ontology analysis with GeneSpring GX software revealed that biological developmental processes and glycosaminoglycan binding were the most upregulated. In addition,most upregulation occurred extracellularly. In the pathway analysis, the TGF beta signaling pathway, cyto-kines and inflammatory response pathway, hypertrophymodel, and themyometrial relaxation and contraction pathway were signi-ficantly upregulated compared with the control cephalic vein. Conclusion. Combining microarray results and pathway information available via the Internet provided biological insight into the structure and composition of the venous wall of overflow AV fistulas. 1