Effects of Mechanical Ventilation on Gene Expression Profiles in Renal Allografts from Brain Dead Rats.

•We used a rat model of explosive brain death (BD).•All animals were either ventilated with low tidal volumes and open lung PEEP or with high tidal volume/low PEEP.•After six hours of mechanical ventilation with or without BD we assessed genome wide gene expression profiles and qPCR in kidney tissue.•The influence of BD on renal gene-expression profiles was greater than the influence of the ventilation strategy.•In BD, low tidal volume ventilation did not influence the inflammatory parameters or kidney function.