Background: Down syndrome is a condition which extra genetic material causes delays in child development, both mentally and physically. Strengthening the study of the neural defects of DS is of great significance.
Methods: Ts65Dn mice were used in this study. We removed the brain and isolated their hippocampus. We customized 54 genes in one PCR arrays, included some important genes related to Alzheimer's disease. The expression of genes were detected by RT-PCR.
Results: PCR arrays contained 54 genes related to Alzheimer's disease. After real-time PCR, three genes (Nae1, APP and Mapt) expressed differently in the hippocampus of Ts65Dn, compared with the normal mice. Nae1 was decreased significantly, while APP and Mapt were increased obviously. The levels of fold-changes of Nae1, APP and Mapt were 86.19, 4.49 and 2.89 respectively. Significantly different levels of expression were found in the Ts65Dn mice compared with the normal control group (P=0.00 for Nae1, P=0.02 for APP, P=0.01 for Mapt respectively).
Conclusions: There are differential expressed genes in the hippocampus of Ts65Dn mice that may be closely related to Alzheimer's disease. PCR array technology was used in the screening and identification of these genes.
Keywords: Alzheimer’s disease; Down syndrome; PCR array; Ts65Dn; hippocampus.