Molecular profiling of experimental endometriosis identified gene expression patterns in common with human disease

Objective To validate a rat model of endometriosis using complimentary DNA (cDNA) microarrays by identifying common gene expression patterns between experimental and natural disease. Design Autotransplantation rat model. Setting Medical school department. Animals Female Sprague-Dawley rats. Intervention(s) Endometriosis was surgically induced by suturing uterine horn implants next to the small intestine’s mesentery. Control rats received sutures with no implants. After 60 days, endometriotic implants and uterine horn were obtained. Main Outcome Measure(s) Gene expression levels determined by cDNA microarrays and real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). The Cy5-labeled cDNA was synthesized from total RNA obtained from endometriotic implants. The Cy3-labeled cDNA was synthesized using uterine RNA from a control rat. Gene expression levels were analyzed after hybridizing experimental and control labeled cDNA to PIQOR (Parallel Identification and Quantification of RNAs) Toxicology Rat Microarrays (Miltenyi Biotec, Cologne, Germany) containing 1,252 known genes. The Cy5/Cy3 ratios were determined, and genes with >2-fold higher or