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(Hypertension. 1998;32:647-648.)
© 1998 American Heart Association, Inc.

Scientific Contributions

Editorial Commentary: The Sa Gene

What Does It Mean?

John Rapp

From the Department of Physiology and Molecular Medicine, Medical College of Ohio, Toledo, Ohio.

Correspondence to John P. Rapp, DVM, PhD, Department of Physiology and Molecular Medicine, Medical College of Ohio, Block Health Science Bldg, 3035 Arlington Ave, Toledo, OH 43614-5804.

Key Words: Editorial • hypertension, genetic • genes • congenic strains • rats, inbred SHR

	Introduction

 
The Sa gene was first described in 1991 by Iwai and Inagami¹ in a study to identify genes that were differentially expressed in the kidneys of spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) and Wistar-Kyoto rats (WKY). To find such genes they first prepared a cDNA library from 16-week-old SHR. The clones were grown on plates, and 4 replica filter lifts were prepared from each plate. Two filters were hybridized to ³²P-labeled single-strand antisense cDNA fragments from kidneys of 16-week-old SHR, and 2 filters were hybridized with a similar probe prepared from WKY rat kidneys. Clones that gave a different intensity of autoradiographic signal with the SHR and WKY probes were selected for study; one of these was the Sa gene. The designation Sa is apparently arbitrary.

Iwai and Inagami¹ confirmed that the Sa gene was differentially expressed in SHR and WKY kidneys by Northern blot analysis, with SHR expressing markedly more than WKY. They also showed that Dahl salt-sensitive (S) rats expressed the Sa gene more than Dahl salt-resistant (R) rats.¹

Although the technique of differential hybridization is a standard one, its application to hypertensive rat models was innovative, and the Sa gene has generated a lot of interest. Important subsequent results were that (1) the Sa gene is expressed in the kidney proximal tubule,^{2 3} (2) the Sa gene is located on rat chromosome 1 and cosegregates with blood pressure (BP) in both the SHR/WKY^{4 5 6 7} and Dahl rat models,^{8 9 10} and (3) polymorphisms in the Sa gene and differential expression of the Sa . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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