Transcriptome analysis describing new immunity and defense genes in peripheral blood mononuclear cells of rheumatoid arthritis patients.
BACKGROUND
Large-scale gene expression profiling of peripheral blood mononuclear cells from Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) patients could provide a molecular description that reflects the contribution of diverse cellular responses associated with this disease. The aim of our study was to identify peripheral blood gene expression profiles for RA patients, using Illumina technology, to gain insights into RA molecular mechanisms.


RESULTS
The Illumina Human-6v2 Expression BeadChips were used for a complete genome-wide transcript profiling of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from 18 RA patients and 15 controls. Differential analysis per gene was performed with one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and P values were adjusted to control the False Discovery Rate (FDR<5%). Genes differentially expressed at significant level between patients and controls were analyzed using Gene Ontology (GO) in the PANTHER database to identify biological processes. A differentially expression of 339 Reference Sequence genes (238 down-regulated and 101 up-regulated) between the two groups was observed. We identified a remarkably elevated expression of a spectrum of genes involved in Immunity and Defense in PBMCs of RA patients compared to controls. This result is confirmed by GO analysis, suggesting that these genes could be activated systemically in RA. No significant down-regulated ontology groups were found. Microarray data were validated by real time PCR in a set of nine genes showing a high degree of correlation.


CONCLUSIONS
Our study highlighted several new genes that could contribute in the identification of innovative clinical biomarkers for diagnostic procedures and therapeutic interventions.
Teixeira
Vitor Hugo
VH
GenHotel-EA3886, Evry University, Paris 7 University Medical School, AutoCure European Consortium member, Evry, France. vitor@polyarthrite.net
Olaso
Robert
R
Martin-Magniette
Marie-Laure
ML
Lasbleiz
Sandra
S
Jacq
Laurent
L
Oliveira
Catarina Resende
CR
Hilliquin
Pascal
P
Gut
Ivo
I
Cornelis
François
F
Petit-Teixeira
Elisabeth
E
D001172:Arthritis, Rheumatoid / Q000097:blood* / Q000235:genetics; D015536:Down-Regulation; D005260:Female; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009000:Monocytes / Q000473:pathology*; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000235:genetics*; D015854:Up-Regulation
D012333:RNA, Messenger