[Selection of reference genes for transcription analysis for myocarditis studies]

Abstract

Myocarditis is defined as myocardial inflammation, followed by cardiomyocyte necrosis. Diagnostics of myocarditis is based on unsafe and complicated method of endomyocardial biopsy (EMB). Development of myocarditis might alter gene expression not only in cardiac but in peripheral blood cells (PBC) as well. So, transcription profiles can be considered as possible biomarkers for the given pathology. At the moment, there are no reference genes defined for expression analysis in myocarditis studies. In this study, we analyzed mRNA content of six housekeeping genes in EMB and PBC samples. An algorithm for processing qPCR results obtained under the limited amount of sample is proposed. Set of GAPDH and HPRT1 genes has been selected for normalization of gene expression profiles in cardiac tissue and blood cells under the studies of myocarditis.