Gene expression profiling in hypothalamus of immobilization-stressed mouse using cDNA microarray.

To investigate the effects of repeated immobilization-stress challenge on HPA axis, genomic transcriptome in the hypothalamus of immobilization-stressed mouse was analyzed by using cDNA microarray. With the 1.5-fold cutoff of arbitrary criteria, the expression levels of 108 genes out of 6016 genes were significantly modulated in the hypothalamus by the stress. Energy metabolism-, lipid metabolism-, and apoptosis- and signal transduction-related genes were activated while DNA repair-, protein biosynthesis-, and structure integrity-related genes were down-regulated in the hypothalamus. Eighteen genes among them were selected for RT-PCR analysis to confirm the change of their expression levels on agarose gels. Besides, dozens of novel genes, which have not been previously reported, were screened to be modulated by the immobilization stress through the transcriptome analysis. These genes are related to apoptosis, tumor-suppression, DNA-binding and protein folding, and thus may be used as potential targets for the development of therapeutics of chronic stress or depressant.