Gene expression profiling in islet biology and diabetes research.
Following the sequencing of most of the human and mouse genomes, the next task for physicians and scientists will be to assess the relative levels of expression of these genes during development, following exposure to various nutritional and pharmacological conditions, and in disease states such as diabetes and related metabolic disorders. This review provides an overview of the various methodologies available for monitoring global gene expression. Use of cDNA libraries, Expressed Sequence Tag (EST) sequencing projects and databases, differential display (DD), serial analysis of gene expression (SAGE), subtractive cloning, and both cDNA and oligo microarrays are discussed, along with their merits and limitations. The Endocrine Pancreas Consortium http://www.cbil.upenn.edu/EPConDB/ has constructed mouse and human cDNA libraries from adult and various stages of embryonic development of endocrine pancreas. Over 100,000 ESTs have been deposited in public databases, and each clone is available through the IMAGE Consortium. A guide to Internet access is provided for future investigation.
Bernal-Mizrachi
Ernesto
E
Washington University School of Medicine, Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism, St Louis, Missouri 63110, USA.
Cras-Méneur
Corentin
C
Ohsugi
Mitsuru
M
Permutt
M Alan
MA
D000818:Animals; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling / Q000379:methods*; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D023281:Genomics / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D007515:Islets of Langerhans / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology*; D051379:Mice; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis / Q000379:methods