title: Investigation of candidate genes for osteoarthritis based on gene expression profiles.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To explore the mechanism of osteoarthritis (OA) and provide valid biological information for further investigation.
  
  
  METHODS
  Gene expression profile of GSE46750 was downloaded from Gene Expression Omnibus database. The Linear Models for Microarray Data (limma) package (Bioconductor project, http://www.bioconductor.org/packages/release/bioc/html/limma.html) was used to identify differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in inflamed OA samples. Gene Ontology function enrichment analysis and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathways enrichment analysis of DEGs were performed based on Database for Annotation, Visualization and Integrated Discovery data, and protein-protein interaction (PPI) network was constructed based on the Search Tool for the Retrieval of Interacting Genes/Proteins database. Regulatory network was screened based on Encyclopedia of DNA Elements. Molecular Complex Detection was used for sub-network screening. Two sub-networks with highest node degree were integrated with transcriptional regulatory network and KEGG functional enrichment analysis was processed for 2 modules.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In total, 401 up- and 196 down-regulated DEGs were obtained. Up-regulated DEGs were involved in inflammatory response, while down-regulated DEGs were involved in cell cycle. PPI network with 2392 protein interactions was constructed. Moreover, 10 genes including Interleukin 6 (IL6) and Aurora B kinase (AURKB) were found to be outstanding in PPI network. There are 214 up- and 8 down-regulated transcription factor (TF)-target pairs in the TF regulatory network. Module 1 had TFs including SPI1, PRDM1, and FOS, while module 2 contained FOSL1. The nodes in module 1 were enriched in chemokine signaling pathway, while the nodes in module 2 were mainly enriched in cell cycle.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The screened DEGs including IL6, AGT, and AURKB might be potential biomarkers for gene therapy for OA by being regulated by TFs such as FOS and SPI1, and participating in the cell cycle and cytokine-cytokine receptor interaction pathway.
authors.affiliation: Shanghai First People's Hospital, Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Shuanghai
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Dong
authors.affiliation: Shanghai First People's Hospital, Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Tian
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Xia
authors.affiliation: Shanghai First People's Hospital, Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Shanghai First People's Hospital, Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Qinghua
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: Shanghai First People's Hospital, Shanghai, China. Electronic address: dale8188@163.com.
authors.forename: Jiwei
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Tian
mesh_terms: D053263:Gene Regulatory Networks; D006801:Humans; D010003:Osteoarthritis / Q000235:genetics*; D060066:Protein Interaction Maps; D059467:Transcriptome
keywords: Differentially expressed genes; Functional enrichment analysis; Osteoarthritis; Protein–protein interaction network; Synovial membrane