Investigation of gene expression profiles in coronary heart disease and functional analysis of target gene

The research outlined here includes constitution of the differential gene expression profile by means of oligonucleotide gene microarray and functional analysis of the target gene for coronary heart disease (CHD). In a microarray screening experiment, the predominance of inflammation- and immune-related genes is presented in the expression profile of 107 differential genes based on the analysis of gene ontology and gene pathway. IL-8, an inflammatory factor, is identified as one of the genes that were markedly up-regulated in CHD. The plasma level of IL-8 is significantly raised in patients with CHD (n = 30) compared with healthy controls (n = 40), which underscores the clinical relevance of the in vitro finding. The further functional analysis shows that IL-8 affects platelet aggregation percentage, expression of CD62p and platelet aggregation morphology in 12 healthy volunteers to some extent. These findings suggest the relevance of inflammation and immune responses to CHD at the DNA level. Moreover, IL-8 may be involved in the pathogenesis of CHD through the pathway of platelet activation. Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 90409021)