%0 Journal Article
%T A human glomerular SAGE transcriptome database
%A Jenny Nystr£¿m
%A Wolfgang Fierlbeck
%A Anna Granqvist
%A Stephen C Kulak
%A Barbara J Ballermann
%J BMC Nephrology
%D 2009
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1471-2369-10-13
%X The database contains 22,907 unique SAGE tag sequences, with a total tag count of 48,905. For each SAGE tag, the ratio of its frequency in glomeruli relative to that in 115 non-glomerular tissues or cells, a measure of transcript enrichment in glomeruli, was calculated. A total of 133 SAGE tags representing well-characterized transcripts were enriched 10-fold or more in glomeruli compared to other tissues. Comparison of data from this study with a previous human glomerular Sau3A-anchored SAGE library reveals that 47 of the highly enriched transcripts are common to both libraries. Among these are the SAGE tags representing many podocyte-predominant transcripts like WT-1, podocin and synaptopodin. Enrichment of podocyte transcript tags SAGE library indicates that other SAGE tags observed at much higher frequencies in this glomerular compared to non-glomerular SAGE libraries are likely to be glomerulus-predominant. A higher level of mRNA expression for 19 transcripts represented by glomerulus-enriched SAGE tags was verified by RT-PCR comparing glomeruli to lung, liver and spleen.The database can be retrieved from, or interrogated online at http://cgap.nci.nih.gov/SAGE webcite. The annotated database is also provided as an additional file with gene identification for 9,022, and matches to the human genome or transcript homologs in other species for 1,433 tags. It should be a useful tool for in silico mining of glomerular gene expression.Renal glomeruli are highly specialized capillary tufts that produce a nearly protein-free ultrafiltrate of plasma at a rate of about 30 plasma volumes daily. Several hereditary, immune-mediated and metabolic disorders cause glomerular injury, proteinuria, and can lead to renal failure. The three intrinsic glomerular cell types, podocytes, mesangial cells, and glomerular endothelial cells (EC) are highly specialized. Podocytes extend an elaborate array of actin-rich foot processes around the exterior of the glomerular capillary loops, for
%U http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2369/10/13