title: Genome-Wide Profiling of RNA from Dried Blood Spots: Convergence with Bioinformatic Results Derived from Whole Venous Blood and Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells.
abstract: Genome-wide transcriptional profiling has emerged as a powerful tool for analyzing biological mechanisms underlying social gradients in health, but utilization in population-based studies has been hampered by logistical constraints and costs associated with venipuncture blood sampling. Dried blood spots (DBS) provide a minimally invasive, low-cost alternative to venipuncture, and in this article we evaluate how closely the substantive results from DBS transcriptional profiling correspond to those derived from parallel analyses of gold-standard venous blood samples (PAXgene whole blood and peripheral blood mononuclear cells [PBMC]). Analyses focused on differences in gene expression between African-Americans and Caucasians in a community sample of 82 healthy adults (age 18-70 years; mean 35). Across 19,679 named gene transcripts, DBS-derived values correlated r = .85 with both PAXgene and PBMC values. Results from bioinformatics analyses of gene expression derived from DBS samples were concordant with PAXgene and PBMC samples in identifying increased Type I interferon signaling and up-regulated activity of monocytes and natural killer (NK) cells in African-Americans compared to Caucasian participants. These findings demonstrate the feasibility of DBS in field-based studies of gene expression and encourage future studies of human transcriptome dynamics in larger, more representative samples than are possible with clinic- or lab-based research designs.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Anthropology , Northwestern University , Evanston , Illinois , USA.|b Cells to Society (C2S): The Center on Social Disparities and Health, Institute for Policy Research , Northwestern University , Evanston , Illinois , USA.|c Program in Child and Brain Development , Canadian Institute for Advanced Research , Toronto , Canada.
authors.forename: Thomas W
authors.initials: TW
authors.lastname: McDade
authors.affiliation: d Psychology Department , University of California, Los Angeles , Los Angeles , California , USA.
authors.forename: Kharah
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: M Ross
authors.affiliation: a Department of Anthropology , Northwestern University , Evanston , Illinois , USA.
authors.forename: Ruby
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: L Fried
authors.affiliation: e Department of Medicine, Division of Hematology-Oncology , UCLA School of Medicine , Los Angeles , California , USA.
authors.forename: Jesusa M G
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Arevalo
authors.affiliation: f Department of Psychiatry & Biobehavioral Sciences , Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology , University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles , California , USA.
authors.forename: Jeffrey
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.affiliation: b Cells to Society (C2S): The Center on Social Disparities and Health, Institute for Policy Research , Northwestern University , Evanston , Illinois , USA.|g Department of Psychology , Northwestern University , Evanston , Illinois , USA.
authors.forename: Gregory E
authors.initials: GE
authors.lastname: Miller
authors.affiliation: e Department of Medicine, Division of Hematology-Oncology , UCLA School of Medicine , Los Angeles , California , USA.|f Department of Psychiatry & Biobehavioral Sciences , Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology , University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles , California , USA.
authors.forename: Steve W
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Cole
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American / Q000235:genetics; D000368:Aged; D015992:Body Mass Index; D002641:Chicago; D019295:Computational Biology / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D059788:Dried Blood Spot Testing / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards*; D005260:Female; D015870:Gene Expression / Q000235:genetics; D015894:Genome, Human; D006801:Humans; D007963:Leukocytes, Mononuclear / Q000473:pathology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D018962:Phlebotomy / Q000191:economics; D012313:RNA / Q000032:analysis*; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000032:analysis / Q000097:blood; D044465:White People / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D014157:Transcription Factors; D012313:RNA