Quantification of thioredoxin mRNA expression in the rat hippocampus by real-time PCR following oxidative stress

Thioredoxin (Trx) is a multifunctional protein with a redox-active disulfide/dithiol in the active site. Thioredoxin, with its redox-regulating and reactive oxygen species (ROS) scavenging activities, plays several important biologic roles both in intra­cellular and extracellular compartments. The purpose of this report was to quantify the relative expression of Trx in rat hippocampus following an oxidative stress-in­volving treatment such as kainic acid (KA) using real-time PCR and the 2-AACt method. The relative changes in expression of Trx mRNA in KA-treated and control animals were significantly different as 2.02 ± 0.77 and 1.0 ± 0.26, respectively (P < 0.05). Minimum and maximum n-fold changes in Trx expression in KA-treated and control animals were determined as (1.4-5.2) and (0.8-1.3), respectively. Thus, real-time PCR and the 2-AACt method for data analysis from real-time PCR were found to be an accurate and sensitive method for quantifying Trx mRNA levels.