Characterization of the macrophage transcriptome in glomerulonephritis-susceptible and -resistant rat strains

Crescentic glomerulonephritis (CRGN) is a major cause of rapidly progressive renal failure for which the underlying genetic basis is unknown. Wistar–Kyoto (WKY) rats show marked susceptibility to CRGN, whereas Lewis rats are resistant. Glomerular injury and crescent formation are macrophage dependent and mainly explained by seven quantitative trait loci ( Crgn1 – 7 ). Here, we used microarray analysis in basal and lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated macrophages to identify genes that reside on pathways predisposing WKY rats to CRGN. We detected 97 novel positional candidates for the uncharacterized Crgn3 – 7. We identified 10 additional secondary effector genes with profound differences in expression between the two strains (>5-fold change,