Systematic analysis of gene expression in human brains before and after death

Henriette Franz,Margaret Ryan,Thomas Arendt,Svante Pääbo,Claudia Ullmann,Albert Becker,Philipp Khaitovich,Matthias Simon,Sabine Bahn

doi:10.1186/gb-2005-6-13-r112

Abstract

Comparison of the gene expression profiles of pre- and post-mortem human brains suggests that post-mortem human brain samples are suitable for investigating general gene-expression patterns.

Highlights

Numerous studies have employed microarray techniques to study changes in gene expression in connection with human disease, aging and evolution
Expression differences between autopsy and resection samples Gene expression profiles were determined in six resection samples from hippocampus and frontal cortex, and in four and six autopsy samples from hippocampus and frontal cortex, respectively, using Affymetrix® HG U133plus2 arrays
We found 5,703 with a significant difference in expression (13.4%) using analysis of variance (ANOVA) with a nominal significance cutoff of 0.01 (false discovery rate (FDR) = 4.12%, permutation test) and 8,643 using significance analysis of microarrays (SAM) at the 5% FDR cutoff

Summary

Introduction

Numerous studies have employed microarray techniques to study changes in gene expression in connection with human disease, aging and evolution. Microarray studies examining gene expression profiles of thousands of genes have become an important tool in uncovering molecular mechanisms of human diseases, aging and evolution [1,2,3]. Many such studies are conducted on postmortem human tissues, since neither cell culture nor animal models can fully recapitulate relevant human conditions [4,5]. Several factors may alter gene expression profiles in postmortem human brain samples. Without any prolonged agonal conditions, death itself may alter gene expression patterns in postmortem human brains. Study of expression levels of 14 genes in human brain autopsy and biopsy samples found significant change in one of the genes, indicating that a substantial proportion of all expressed genes could be affected by death [10]

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Discussion

Conclusion