Evaluation of Gene Expression in the Rat Carotid Body Using the Differential Display Technique

Abstract

A fundamental doctrine of biology holds that cell- and tissue-specific functions are guided by selective gene expression. Thus, in the developing carotid body it is expected that the emergence of unique chemoreceptor function is directed by mRNA transcripts which convey specific sensitivities to hypoxia, hypercapnia, etc. In addition, altered gene expression likely contributes to the important morphological changes and physiological adjustments which occur in the carotid body during exposure to chronic hypoxia. Unfortunately, previous attempts to identify these important genes using conventional molecular biological techniques (i.e, RNA blotting and probing) have been hampered by the requirement of relatively large tissue samples for nucleic acid extraction. Furthermore, these methods do not allow assessment of the multitude (~ 15,000) of transcripts usually expressed in eukaryotic cells, nor do they reveal unknown genes which may be crucial to specific functions and adaptations.