title: Gene expression studies in major depression.
abstract: The dramatic technical advances in methods to measure gene expression on a genome-wide level thus far have not been paralleled by breakthrough discoveries in psychiatric disorders-including major depression (MD)-using these hypothesis-free approaches. In this review, we first describe the methodologic advances made in gene expression analysis, from quantitative polymerase chain reaction to next-generation sequencing. We then discuss issues in gene expression experiments specific to MD, ranging from the choice of target tissues to the characterization of the case group. We provide a synopsis of the gene expression studies published thus far for MD, with a focus on studies using mRNA microarray methods. Finally, we discuss possible new strategies for the gene expression studies in MD that circumvent some of the addressed issues.
authors.affiliation: Max-Planck Institute of Psychiatry, Kraepelinstr. 2-10, 80804 Munich, Germany.
authors.forename: Divya
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Mehta
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Menke
authors.forename: Elisabeth B
authors.initials: EB
authors.lastname: Binder
mesh_terms: D003865:Major Depressive Disorder / Q000235:genetics*; D015870:Gene Expression; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D006801:Humans; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D012333:RNA, Messenger