Fig. 3.

Genes involved in immune response and transcriptional regulation are conserved between MR antagonists and standard-of-care glucocorticoid agonists. A: thirty-three gene-expression changes were conserved between lisinopril plus spironolactone (LS) and eplerenone plus lisinopril (EL). Out of these 33, only 10 were also not conserved with prednisolone treatment. B: there were 62 genes conserved between prednisolone (Pred) and LS or EL treated versus untreated het mice. C: an additional 312 genes were detected only in the Pred versus untreated het group. These genes encompass similar functional groups to those in A and B, including immune response, transcriptional regulators, ion binding, transmembrane, and alternative (Alt.) splicing. However, several functional groups specific to prednisolone treatment were also represented, including 35 genes involved in apoptosis or proteolysis (11.1%), 26 cytokines with chemokine activity (8.3%), 10 cytoskeleton (3.2%), 11 cell migration/motility (3.5%), 4 cell adhesion (1.3%), 3 drug metabolism (Met.; 1%), 3 behavioral response (1%), and 14 genes with GTPase activity (4.5%). D: seventeen gene-expression changes were conserved between Pred and EL, and (E) 21 were conserved between Pred and LS, subsets of the genes represented in B.