Reference gene identification for reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction analysis in an ischemic wound-healing model.

Reference genes are often used in RT-quantitative PCR (qPCR) analysis to normalize gene expression levels to a gene that is expressed stably across study groups. They ultimately serve as a control in RT-qPCR analysis, producing more accurate interpretation of results. Whereas many reference genes have been used in various wound-healing studies, the most stable reference gene for ischemic wound-healing analysis has yet to be identified. The goal of this study was to determine systematically the most stable reference gene for studying gene expression in a rat ischemic wound-healing model using RT-qPCR. Twelve commonly used reference genes were analyzed using RT-qPCR and geNorm data analysis to determine stability across normal and ischemic skin tissue. It was ultimately determined that Ubiquitin C (UBC) and β-2 Microglobulin (B2M) are the most stably conserved reference genes across normal and ischemic skin tissue. UBC and B2M represent reliable reference genes for RT-qPCR studies in the rat ischemic wound model and are unaffected by sustained tissue ischemia. The geometric mean of these two stable genes provides an accurate normalization factor. These results provide insight on dependence of reference-gene stability on experimental parameters and the importance of such reference-gene investigations.