title: Increased peripheral blood expression of electron transport chain genes in bipolar depression.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To identify specific genetic pathways showing altered expression in peripheral blood of depressed subjects with bipolar disorder (BPD).
  
  
  METHODS
  Illumina Sentrix BeadChip (Human-6v2) microarrays containing >48,000 transcript probes were used to measure levels of gene expression in peripheral blood from 20 depressed subjects with BPD and in 15 healthy control subjects. Quantitative real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) was used to confirm a subset of these differences.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 1,180 genes were differentially expressed between subjects with BPD and healthy controls (fold-change >1.3, false discovery rate-corrected p < 0.05, covaried for age and sex). Of these, 559 genes were up-regulated in BPD subjects and 621 were down-regulated. Surprisingly, there was no difference between medicated (n = 11) and unmedicated (n = 9) subjects with BPD for any of these genes. Pathway analysis using GeneGo MetaCore software showed that the most significantly affected pathway was the mitochondrial electron transport chain (ETC). Of the 85 objects (genes or proteins) in this pathway, 22 were up-regulated and 2 down-regulated in subjects with BPD. qRT-PCR confirmed up-regulation of nuclear encoded ETC genes in complexes I, III, IV, and V and, in addition, demonstrated up-regulation of mitochondrially encoded genes in each of these complexes.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results suggest that increased expression of multiple components of the mitochondrial ETC may be a primary deficit in bipolar depression, rather than an effect of medication.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, 300 George Street, New Haven, CT 06511, USA. robert.beech@yale.edu
authors.forename: Robert D
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Beech
authors.forename: Lori
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Lowthert
authors.forename: Janine J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Leffert
authors.forename: Portia N
authors.initials: PN
authors.lastname: Mason
authors.forename: Mary M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Taylor
authors.forename: Sheila
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Umlauf
authors.forename: Aiping
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Ji Young
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Kathleen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Maloney
authors.forename: Anjana
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Muralidharan
authors.forename: Boris
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Lorberg
authors.forename: Hongyu
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Samuel S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Newton
authors.forename: Shrikant
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mane
authors.forename: C Neill
authors.initials: CN
authors.lastname: Epperson
authors.forename: Rajita
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sinha
authors.forename: Hilary
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Blumberg
authors.forename: Zubin
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Bhagwagar
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001714:Bipolar Disorder / Q000097:blood / Q000235:genetics*; D015536:Down-Regulation; D045222:Electron Transport Chain Complex Proteins / Q000097:blood / Q000235:genetics*; D005260:Female; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000378:metabolism; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D015854:Up-Regulation
chemical_list: D045222:Electron Transport Chain Complex Proteins; D012333:RNA, Messenger