Hepatic expression profile of forkhead transcription factor genes in normal Balb/c mice and their dynamic changes after bile duct ligation

Dysregulation of Forkhead box (Fox) transcription factor family genes was previously shown to lead to congenital disorders, diabetes mellitus, and carcinogenesis, and recent reports suggested that several Fox genes play important roles in the pathogenesis of liver fibrosis. The present study was initiated to determine the expression profiles of the Fox genes in normal Balb/c mouse liver and their dynamic expression changes during fibrogenesis induced by experimental bile duct ligation (BDL). RT-PCR was employed to detect 18 FOX family members including FOXO1, FOXO3, FOXM1, and FOXL1 in normal mouse liver. FQ-PCR was performed to analyze the dynamic mRNA expression changes of nine inflammation- or proliferation-related FOX family genes in BDL mice. Results showed that all the 18 Fox genes were expressed in the normal mouse liver, among which the expression of FOXO1 and FOXO3 were found to be the highest. The inflammation and proliferation-related FOX family genes were found to be dynamically changed during BDL-induced liver injury with reduced FOXO1 and enhanced FOXOL1 and FOXM1, indicating their potential involvement in the pathogenesis of liver fibrosis. This is the first systematic evaluation of hepatic expression of FOX genes in both normal and BDL mice.