Large-scale estimates of cellular origins of mRNAs: Enhancing the yield of transcriptome analyses

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• 作者：Etienne Sibille ; Victoria Arango ; Jennifer Joeyen-Waldorf ; Yingjie Wang ; Samuel Leman ; Alex ; re Surget ; Catherine Belzung ; J. John Mann ; David A. Lewis
• 关键词：mRNA ; Array ; Transcriptome ; White matter ; Gray matter ; Mouse ; Human
• 刊名：Journal of Neuroscience Methods
• 出版年：2008
• 出版时间：30 January 2008
• 年：2008
• 卷：167
• 期：2
• 页码：198-206
• 全文大小：788 K

文摘

Gene expression profiling holds great promise for identifying molecular pathologies of central nervous system disorders. However, the analysis of brain tissue poses unique analytical challenges, as typical microarray signals represent averaged transcript levels across neuronal and glial cell populations. Here we have generated ratios of gene transcript levels between gray and adjacent white matter samples to estimate the relative cellular origins of expression. We show that incorporating these ratios into transcriptome analysis (i) provides new analytical perspectives, (ii) increases the potential for biological insight obtained from postmortem transcriptome studies, (iii) expands knowledge about glial and neuronal cellular programs and (iv) facilitates the generation of cell-type specific hypotheses. This approach represents a robust and cost-effective “add-on” to transcriptome analyses of the mammalian brain. As this approach can be applied post hoc, we provide tables of ratios for analysis of existing mouse and human brain datasets.