Transcriptional profiling of stellate ganglia from normotensive and spontaneously hypertensive rat strains

Abstract

The course of hypertension remains poorly understood, although impairment of the sympathetic nervous systems is thought to play a role in its aetiology. In this study, RNA-sequencing (RNAseq) was used to identify transcriptomal differences in the sympathetic stellate ganglia between 16-week-old normotensive Wistar rats and spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR). Sequencing quality was assessed by FastQC and quasi-mapping rate by Salmon. Differential expression results were confirmed by real time reverse transcriptase Quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction (qRT-PCR). RNAseq analysis was found to be predictive and representative of transcriptomal changes when compared to qRT-PCR by correlation analysis. Whether these changes underpin physiological sympathetic phenotypes associated with hypertension remains to be established, however this dataset identifies lead transcripts as a priori targets for further investigation.

Sex differences in sympathetic gene expression and cardiac neurochemistry in Wistar Kyoto rats

“…Separation of the sexes was observed during multidimensional scaling (MDS) analysis to determine how the expression profiles of each sample compared to all others ( Fig 2 ). Genes associated with sympathetic neurotransmission were among the most highly expressed genes, consistent with our previous studies in mice[2] and with previous analyses of male rat stellates[8, 9]. Similar to mice, the top 100 most highly expressed genes were almost identical in males and females ( S1 Table ).…”

“…It will be interesting to see if the same genes are dysregulated in female SHR ganglia, and if cardiac NE is higher in the female heart. The most highly expressed stellate ganglion genes in the current study match the most abundant genes in the Bardsley study [8, 9] and our earlier mouse study[2] , providing confirmation of the core stellate ganglion transcriptome. Although we identified sex-specific differences in the expression of many genes, those associated with noradrenergic transmission were expressed at similar levels in male and female ganglia.…”

“…Our male-female comparison data in WKY rat ganglia complement other investigations of stellate transcriptomes. A recent study by Bardsley and colleagues compared the stellate ganglion transcriptome of male Wistar and SHR rats [8, 9]. That work identified increased expression of multiple genes in male SHR ganglia that might contribute to excess sympathetic transmission and hypertension [7, 10].…”

“…This is true for studies of a broad range of diseases including heart failure, arrhythmias, and hypertension that utilize a variety of different rat strains [3–7]. Recently, Bardsley and colleagues compared the stellate ganglion transcriptome of Wistar rats with spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR)[8, 9]. Differences were observed in the expression of genes related to calcium handling and cyclic nucleotide signaling that were consistent with alterations in neuronal calcium handling and cyclic nucleotide metabolism identified in physiological experiments [7, 10].…”

Differentially expressed transcripts and associated protein pathways in basilar artery smooth muscle cells of the high-salt intake–induced hypertensive rat

“…The RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq) Fastq raw data were pruned using Trimmomatic to remove adaptors and lower mass reads. The quality of clean data was assessed using FastQC software ( Davis, Bardsley & Paterson, 2018 ). The quality-approved data were mapped to the reference genome of the rat (National Center for Biotechnology Information [NCBI] genome assembly, version Rnor_6.0) using HISAT2 (v2.0.13) ( Pertea et al, 2016 ) and annotated with the annotation file (.gtf) NCBI Rnor_6.0.…”