Research

A dynamic model of gene expression in monocytes reveals differences in immediate/early response genes between adult and neonatal cells

Shelley Lawrence^1* , Yuhong Tang^2* , M Barton Frank² , Igor Dozmorov² , Kaiyu Jiang¹ , Yanmin Chen¹ , Craig Cadwell² , Sean Turner² , Michael Centola² and James N Jarvis¹

¹  Dept. of Pediatrics, Neonatal Section, University of Oklahoma College of Medicine, Oklahoma City, OK, USA

²  Arthritis & Immunology Program Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, Oklahoma City, 73104, USA

author email corresponding author email* Contributed equally

Journal of Inflammation 2007, 4:4doi:10.1186/1476-9255-4-4

Published:	16 February 2007

Abstract

Neonatal monocytes display immaturity of numerous functions compared with adult cells. Gene expression arrays provide a promising tool for elucidating mechanisms underlying neonatal immune function. We used a well-established microarray to analyze differences between LPS-stimulated human cord blood and adult monocytes to create dynamic models for interactions to elucidate observed deficiencies in neonatal immune responses.

We identified 168 genes that were differentially expressed between adult and cord monocytes after 45 min incubation with LPS. Of these genes, 95% (159 of 167) were over-expressed in adult relative to cord monocytes. Differentially expressed genes could be sorted into nine groups according to their kinetics of activation. Functional modelling suggested differences between adult and cord blood in the regulation of apoptosis, a finding confirmed using annexin binding assays. We conclude that kinetic studies of gene expression reveal potentially important differences in gene expression dynamics that may provide insight into neonatal innate immunity.