Abstract: Objective To explore the difference of gene expression profiling between normal basilar arteries and basilar arteries of cerebral vasospasm (CVS) after subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) in rabbits. Methods cDNA chip of normal basilar arteries and basilar arteries of CVS after SAH in rabbits were downloaded from GEO database. The chip was analyzed and screened by Bioconductor software, and function enrichment and pathway analysis of the differentially expressed genes were analyzed by Cytoscape software. Then 6 adult male Japanese rabbits were used, and randomly divided into normal control group (n=3) and SAH model group (n=3). Rabbit SAH models were established by cisterna secondaryblood-injection method. RNA data of normal basilar artery specimens on the 0 day and basilar artery specimens after SAH on the 5- day were used to validate the parts of differentially expressed genes by qRT- PCR. Results A total of 4 356 differentially expressed genes were found in normal basilar arteries and basilar arteries of CVS after SAH in rabbits. Among them, 920 genes were considered to be significant with P- value＜0.05, such as GRIK1, MYH13, ZNF45, SAA3, RLN1, MSR1 and others. Function enrichment analysis indicated that the differentially expressed genes were involved in regulation of Ca2 + transmembrane transporter activity, negative regulation of ion transmembrane transport, regulation of potassium ion transport, positive regulation of JAK-STAT signaling cascades and other biological processes. Pathway analysis showed that calcium signaling pathway, cGMP- PKG signaling pathway, HIF- 1 signaling pathway, PI3K- Akt signaling pathway and other signaling pathways maybe related with the differentially expressed genes. qRT- PCR verification showed that the expression of MSR1 in SAH model group was consistent with that of the chip result. Conclusion The gene expressions of basilar arteries of CVS after SAH in rabbits are significantly different, and MSR1 gene can be used as a potential target for studying the pathological mechanism of CVS.

Key words: subarachnoid hemorrhage, vasospasm, intracranial, basilar artery, oligonucleotide array sequence analysis, GO analysis, pathway analysis