Exploration of the genes affecting the compound acting against emphysema development in a mouse model of elastase-induced emphysema.

In a mouse model of elastase-induced emphysema, the effect of tetomilast against the emphysema development observed in C57BL/6J (C57) could be also detected in phosphodiesterase (PDE) 4D(+/+) but not in PDE4B(+/+), PDE4B(-/-), and PDE4D(-/-) mice. Based on this result, we hypothesized that the difference in the efficacy of tetomilast among these strains of mice might result from the differences in the levels of the target molecules of tetomilast other than PDE4 in each mouse strain. To test this hypothesis, we used microarrays to compare the expression levels of genes in the lungs of each mouse strain. The expression profiling by array demonstrated that the levels of cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor 1 (CDKN1a) in PDE4B(+/+), PDE4B(-/-), and PDE4D(-/-) were higher than those in C57 and PDE4D(+/+).

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