“…17,18 Cardiac mRNA expression analysis by quantitative real-time reverse transcriptase-PCR Quantitative real-time reverse transcriptase-PCR was performed using the LightCycler instrument (Roche Diagnostics, Neuilly sur Seine, France) for detection of atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP), SERCA2, NCX-1, a-MHC, b-MHC, MCP-1, Bax, PGC-1a and ribosomal 18S mRNA as described elsewhere. 18,27 Briefly, total RNA from the rat hearts were collected using Trizol (Gibco, Invitrogen, Carlsbad, CA, USA), treated with DNAse 1 (deoxyribonuclease 1, Sigma Chemicals, St Louis, MO, USA) and reverse transcribed to cDNA by reverse transcription enzyme (Im-Prom-II reverse transcription system, Promega, Madison, WI, USA). A volume of 1 ml of cDNA was subjected to quantitative real-time PCR for detection of ANP, a-MHC, b-MHC, MCP-1, Bax, PGC-1a and ribosomal 18S mRNA.…”