Screening co-expressed target genes in rats and goats of blast lung injury through comparative transcriptomic analysis

Abstract Background Blast lung injury (BLI) has been one of the most threat for human beings with the frequent occurrence of local wars, terrorist attacks and industrial explosions. The underlying mechanisms remains unclear. In this paper, transcriptome sequencing was performed in the lung tissues of the two species of goat and rat to identify the potential therapeutic targets involved in BLI. Results In this paper, the BLI models of rat and goat were successfully by validated HE-stain. Reddish edema fluid, erythrocyte, and even focal or patchy bleeding occurred in the alveolar cavity were visible under microscope. The genomic information of the two species was obtained by transcriptome sequencing. There were 83 DEGs co-expressed in rats and goats, among which 49 genes showed the same expression trend, including 38 up-regulated expression genes and 11 down-regulated expression genes. By the enrichment analysis, IL-17 signaling pathway and vascular smooth muscle contraction pathway are involved in BLI mechanism. The genes expressed in lung were screened for experimental verification, the main genes associated with BLI in both goat and rat are AGR2, ANKRD65, BPIFA1, BPIFB1 and KRT4. Conclusion In this study, the whole genomes of two species of BLI models were sequenced to dissect the basic characteristics of their genomes, laying the foundation for further investigation the mechanisms of BLI. By the genomic analysis, the expressed genes were involved in IL-17 signaling pathway and vascular smooth muscle contraction pathway associated with BLI. Finally, AGR2, ANKRD65, BPIFA1, BPIFB1 and KRT4 were highly expressed in both goat and rat BLI model, which could be used as potential target genes and may serve as biomarkers for the prognosis, diagnosis and therapy for BLI.