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Sample records for tissue microarray samples

  1. Ontology-based, Tissue MicroArray oriented, image centered tissue bank

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    Viti Federica

    2008-04-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Tissue MicroArray technique is becoming increasingly important in pathology for the validation of experimental data from transcriptomic analysis. This approach produces many images which need to be properly managed, if possible with an infrastructure able to support tissue sharing between institutes. Moreover, the available frameworks oriented to Tissue MicroArray provide good storage for clinical patient, sample treatment and block construction information, but their utility is limited by the lack of data integration with biomolecular information. Results In this work we propose a Tissue MicroArray web oriented system to support researchers in managing bio-samples and, through the use of ontologies, enables tissue sharing aimed at the design of Tissue MicroArray experiments and results evaluation. Indeed, our system provides ontological description both for pre-analysis tissue images and for post-process analysis image results, which is crucial for information exchange. Moreover, working on well-defined terms it is then possible to query web resources for literature articles to integrate both pathology and bioinformatics data. Conclusions Using this system, users associate an ontology-based description to each image uploaded into the database and also integrate results with the ontological description of biosequences identified in every tissue. Moreover, it is possible to integrate the ontological description provided by the user with a full compliant gene ontology definition, enabling statistical studies about correlation between the analyzed pathology and the most commonly related biological processes.

  2. PATMA: parser of archival tissue microarray

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    Lukasz Roszkowiak

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available Tissue microarrays are commonly used in modern pathology for cancer tissue evaluation, as it is a very potent technique. Tissue microarray slides are often scanned to perform computer-aided histopathological analysis of the tissue cores. For processing the image, splitting the whole virtual slide into images of individual cores is required. The only way to distinguish cores corresponding to specimens in the tissue microarray is through their arrangement. Unfortunately, distinguishing the correct order of cores is not a trivial task as they are not labelled directly on the slide. The main aim of this study was to create a procedure capable of automatically finding and extracting cores from archival images of the tissue microarrays. This software supports the work of scientists who want to perform further image processing on single cores. The proposed method is an efficient and fast procedure, working in fully automatic or semi-automatic mode. A total of 89% of punches were correctly extracted with automatic selection. With an addition of manual correction, it is possible to fully prepare the whole slide image for extraction in 2 min per tissue microarray. The proposed technique requires minimum skill and time to parse big array of cores from tissue microarray whole slide image into individual core images.

  3. Support vector machine classification and validation of cancer tissue samples using microarray expression data.

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    Furey, T S; Cristianini, N; Duffy, N; Bednarski, D W; Schummer, M; Haussler, D

    2000-10-01

    DNA microarray experiments generating thousands of gene expression measurements, are being used to gather information from tissue and cell samples regarding gene expression differences that will be useful in diagnosing disease. We have developed a new method to analyse this kind of data using support vector machines (SVMs). This analysis consists of both classification of the tissue samples, and an exploration of the data for mis-labeled or questionable tissue results. We demonstrate the method in detail on samples consisting of ovarian cancer tissues, normal ovarian tissues, and other normal tissues. The dataset consists of expression experiment results for 97,802 cDNAs for each tissue. As a result of computational analysis, a tissue sample is discovered and confirmed to be wrongly labeled. Upon correction of this mistake and the removal of an outlier, perfect classification of tissues is achieved, but not with high confidence. We identify and analyse a subset of genes from the ovarian dataset whose expression is highly differentiated between the types of tissues. To show robustness of the SVM method, two previously published datasets from other types of tissues or cells are analysed. The results are comparable to those previously obtained. We show that other machine learning methods also perform comparably to the SVM on many of those datasets. The SVM software is available at http://www.cs. columbia.edu/ approximately bgrundy/svm.

  4. Comparison of Nanostring nCounter® Data on FFPE Colon Cancer Samples and Affymetrix Microarray Data on Matched Frozen Tissues.

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    Xi Chen

    Full Text Available The prognosis of colorectal cancer (CRC stage II and III patients remains a challenge due to the difficulties of finding robust biomarkers suitable for testing clinical samples. The majority of published gene signatures of CRC have been generated on fresh frozen colorectal tissues. Because collection of frozen tissue is not practical for routine surgical pathology practice, a clinical test that improves prognostic capabilities beyond standard pathological staging of colon cancer will need to be designed for formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE tissues. The NanoString nCounter® platform is a gene expression analysis tool developed for use with FFPE-derived samples. We designed a custom nCounter® codeset based on elements from multiple published fresh frozen tissue microarray-based prognostic gene signatures for colon cancer, and we used this platform to systematically compare gene expression data from FFPE with matched microarray array data from frozen tissues. Our results show moderate correlation of gene expression between two platforms and discovery of a small subset of genes as candidate biomarkers for colon cancer prognosis that are detectable and quantifiable in FFPE tissue sections.

  5. Tissue Microarray Analysis Applied to Bone Diagenesis

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    Barrios Mello, Rafael; Regis Silva, Maria Regina; Seixas Alves, Maria Teresa; Evison, Martin; Guimarães, Marco Aurélio; Francisco, Rafaella Arrabaça; Dias Astolphi, Rafael; Miazato Iwamura, Edna Sadayo

    2017-01-01

    Taphonomic processes affecting bone post mortem are important in forensic, archaeological and palaeontological investigations. In this study, the application of tissue microarray (TMA) analysis to a sample of femoral bone specimens from 20 exhumed individuals of known period of burial and age at death is described. TMA allows multiplexing of subsamples, permitting standardized comparative analysis of adjacent sections in 3-D and of representative cross-sections of a large number of specimens....

  6. Deep learning for tissue microarray image-based outcome prediction in patients with colorectal cancer

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    Bychkov, Dmitrii; Turkki, Riku; Haglund, Caj; Linder, Nina; Lundin, Johan

    2016-03-01

    Recent advances in computer vision enable increasingly accurate automated pattern classification. In the current study we evaluate whether a convolutional neural network (CNN) can be trained to predict disease outcome in patients with colorectal cancer based on images of tumor tissue microarray samples. We compare the prognostic accuracy of CNN features extracted from the whole, unsegmented tissue microarray spot image, with that of CNN features extracted from the epithelial and non-epithelial compartments, respectively. The prognostic accuracy of visually assessed histologic grade is used as a reference. The image data set consists of digitized hematoxylin-eosin (H and E) stained tissue microarray samples obtained from 180 patients with colorectal cancer. The patient samples represent a variety of histological grades, have data available on a series of clinicopathological variables including long-term outcome and ground truth annotations performed by experts. The CNN features extracted from images of the epithelial tissue compartment significantly predicted outcome (hazard ratio (HR) 2.08; CI95% 1.04-4.16; area under the curve (AUC) 0.66) in a test set of 60 patients, as compared to the CNN features extracted from unsegmented images (HR 1.67; CI95% 0.84-3.31, AUC 0.57) and visually assessed histologic grade (HR 1.96; CI95% 0.99-3.88, AUC 0.61). As a conclusion, a deep-learning classifier can be trained to predict outcome of colorectal cancer based on images of H and E stained tissue microarray samples and the CNN features extracted from the epithelial compartment only resulted in a prognostic discrimination comparable to that of visually determined histologic grade.

  7. Discovering biological progression underlying microarray samples.

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    Peng Qiu

    2011-04-01

    Full Text Available In biological systems that undergo processes such as differentiation, a clear concept of progression exists. We present a novel computational approach, called Sample Progression Discovery (SPD, to discover patterns of biological progression underlying microarray gene expression data. SPD assumes that individual samples of a microarray dataset are related by an unknown biological process (i.e., differentiation, development, cell cycle, disease progression, and that each sample represents one unknown point along the progression of that process. SPD aims to organize the samples in a manner that reveals the underlying progression and to simultaneously identify subsets of genes that are responsible for that progression. We demonstrate the performance of SPD on a variety of microarray datasets that were generated by sampling a biological process at different points along its progression, without providing SPD any information of the underlying process. When applied to a cell cycle time series microarray dataset, SPD was not provided any prior knowledge of samples' time order or of which genes are cell-cycle regulated, yet SPD recovered the correct time order and identified many genes that have been associated with the cell cycle. When applied to B-cell differentiation data, SPD recovered the correct order of stages of normal B-cell differentiation and the linkage between preB-ALL tumor cells with their cell origin preB. When applied to mouse embryonic stem cell differentiation data, SPD uncovered a landscape of ESC differentiation into various lineages and genes that represent both generic and lineage specific processes. When applied to a prostate cancer microarray dataset, SPD identified gene modules that reflect a progression consistent with disease stages. SPD may be best viewed as a novel tool for synthesizing biological hypotheses because it provides a likely biological progression underlying a microarray dataset and, perhaps more importantly, the

  8. ATMAD: robust image analysis for Automatic Tissue MicroArray De-arraying.

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    Nguyen, Hoai Nam; Paveau, Vincent; Cauchois, Cyril; Kervrann, Charles

    2018-04-19

    Over the last two decades, an innovative technology called Tissue Microarray (TMA), which combines multi-tissue and DNA microarray concepts, has been widely used in the field of histology. It consists of a collection of several (up to 1000 or more) tissue samples that are assembled onto a single support - typically a glass slide - according to a design grid (array) layout, in order to allow multiplex analysis by treating numerous samples under identical and standardized conditions. However, during the TMA manufacturing process, the sample positions can be highly distorted from the design grid due to the imprecision when assembling tissue samples and the deformation of the embedding waxes. Consequently, these distortions may lead to severe errors of (histological) assay results when the sample identities are mismatched between the design and its manufactured output. The development of a robust method for de-arraying TMA, which localizes and matches TMA samples with their design grid, is therefore crucial to overcome the bottleneck of this prominent technology. In this paper, we propose an Automatic, fast and robust TMA De-arraying (ATMAD) approach dedicated to images acquired with brightfield and fluorescence microscopes (or scanners). First, tissue samples are localized in the large image by applying a locally adaptive thresholding on the isotropic wavelet transform of the input TMA image. To reduce false detections, a parametric shape model is considered for segmenting ellipse-shaped objects at each detected position. Segmented objects that do not meet the size and the roundness criteria are discarded from the list of tissue samples before being matched with the design grid. Sample matching is performed by estimating the TMA grid deformation under the thin-plate model. Finally, thanks to the estimated deformation, the true tissue samples that were preliminary rejected in the early image processing step are recognized by running a second segmentation step. We

  9. Annotating breast cancer microarray samples using ontologies

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    Liu, Hongfang; Li, Xin; Yoon, Victoria; Clarke, Robert

    2008-01-01

    As the most common cancer among women, breast cancer results from the accumulation of mutations in essential genes. Recent advance in high-throughput gene expression microarray technology has inspired researchers to use the technology to assist breast cancer diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment prediction. However, the high dimensionality of microarray experiments and public access of data from many experiments have caused inconsistencies which initiated the development of controlled terminologies and ontologies for annotating microarray experiments, such as the standard microarray Gene Expression Data (MGED) ontology (MO). In this paper, we developed BCM-CO, an ontology tailored specifically for indexing clinical annotations of breast cancer microarray samples from the NCI Thesaurus. Our research showed that the coverage of NCI Thesaurus is very limited with respect to i) terms used by researchers to describe breast cancer histology (covering 22 out of 48 histology terms); ii) breast cancer cell lines (covering one out of 12 cell lines); and iii) classes corresponding to the breast cancer grading and staging. By incorporating a wider range of those terms into BCM-CO, we were able to indexed breast cancer microarray samples from GEO using BCM-CO and MGED ontology and developed a prototype system with web interface that allows the retrieval of microarray data based on the ontology annotations. PMID:18999108

  10. Microfluidic extraction and microarray detection of biomarkers from cancer tissue slides

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    Nguyen, H. T.; Dupont, L. N.; Jean, A. M.; Géhin, T.; Chevolot, Y.; Laurenceau, E.; Gijs, M. A. M.

    2018-03-01

    We report here a new microfluidic method allowing for the quantification of human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) expression levels from formalin-fixed breast cancer tissues. After partial extraction of proteins from the tissue slide, the extract is routed to an antibody (Ab) microarray for HER2 titration by fluorescence. Then the HER2-expressing cell area is evaluated by immunofluorescence (IF) staining of the tissue slide and used to normalize the fluorescent HER2 signal measured from the Ab microarray. The number of HER2 gene copies measured by fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) on an adjacent tissue slide is concordant with the normalized HER2 expression signal. This work is the first study implementing biomarker extraction and detection from cancer tissue slides using microfluidics in combination with a microarray system, paving the way for further developments towards multiplex and precise quantification of cancer biomarkers.

  11. Characterization of the effect of sample quality on high density oligonucleotide microarray data using progressively degraded rat liver RNA

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    Rosenzweig Barry A

    2007-09-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background The interpretability of microarray data can be affected by sample quality. To systematically explore how RNA quality affects microarray assay performance, a set of rat liver RNA samples with a progressive change in RNA integrity was generated by thawing frozen tissue or by ex vivo incubation of fresh tissue over a time course. Results Incubation of tissue at 37°C for several hours had little effect on RNA integrity, but did induce changes in the transcript levels of stress response genes and immune cell markers. In contrast, thawing of tissue led to a rapid loss of RNA integrity. Probe sets identified as most sensitive to RNA degradation tended to be located more than 1000 nucleotides upstream of their transcription termini, similar to the positioning of control probe sets used to assess sample quality on Affymetrix GeneChip® arrays. Samples with RNA integrity numbers less than or equal to 7 showed a significant increase in false positives relative to undegraded liver RNA and a reduction in the detection of true positives among probe sets most sensitive to sample integrity for in silico modeled changes of 1.5-, 2-, and 4-fold. Conclusion Although moderate levels of RNA degradation are tolerated by microarrays with 3'-biased probe selection designs, in this study we identify a threshold beyond which decreased specificity and sensitivity can be observed that closely correlates with average target length. These results highlight the value of annotating microarray data with metrics that capture important aspects of sample quality.

  12. Quantitative multiplex quantum dot in-situ hybridisation based gene expression profiling in tissue microarrays identifies prognostic genes in acute myeloid leukaemia

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    Tholouli, Eleni [Department of Haematology, Manchester Royal Infirmary, Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9WL (United Kingdom); MacDermott, Sarah [The Medical School, The University of Manchester, Oxford Road, M13 9PT Manchester (United Kingdom); Hoyland, Judith [School of Biomedicine, Faculty of Medical and Human Sciences, The University of Manchester, Oxford Road, M13 9PT Manchester (United Kingdom); Yin, John Liu [Department of Haematology, Manchester Royal Infirmary, Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9WL (United Kingdom); Byers, Richard, E-mail: richard.byers@cmft.nhs.uk [School of Cancer and Enabling Sciences, Faculty of Medical and Human Sciences, The University of Manchester, Stopford Building, Oxford Road, M13 9PT Manchester (United Kingdom)

    2012-08-24

    Highlights: Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Development of a quantitative high throughput in situ expression profiling method. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Application to a tissue microarray of 242 AML bone marrow samples. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Identification of HOXA4, HOXA9, Meis1 and DNMT3A as prognostic markers in AML. -- Abstract: Measurement and validation of microarray gene signatures in routine clinical samples is problematic and a rate limiting step in translational research. In order to facilitate measurement of microarray identified gene signatures in routine clinical tissue a novel method combining quantum dot based oligonucleotide in situ hybridisation (QD-ISH) and post-hybridisation spectral image analysis was used for multiplex in-situ transcript detection in archival bone marrow trephine samples from patients with acute myeloid leukaemia (AML). Tissue-microarrays were prepared into which white cell pellets were spiked as a standard. Tissue microarrays were made using routinely processed bone marrow trephines from 242 patients with AML. QD-ISH was performed for six candidate prognostic genes using triplex QD-ISH for DNMT1, DNMT3A, DNMT3B, and for HOXA4, HOXA9, Meis1. Scrambled oligonucleotides were used to correct for background staining followed by normalisation of expression against the expression values for the white cell pellet standard. Survival analysis demonstrated that low expression of HOXA4 was associated with poorer overall survival (p = 0.009), whilst high expression of HOXA9 (p < 0.0001), Meis1 (p = 0.005) and DNMT3A (p = 0.04) were associated with early treatment failure. These results demonstrate application of a standardised, quantitative multiplex QD-ISH method for identification of prognostic markers in formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded clinical samples, facilitating measurement of gene expression signatures in routine clinical samples.

  13. O arranjo em matriz de amostras teciduais (tissue microarray: larga escala e baixo custo ao alcance do patologista Tissue microarrays: high throughput and low cost avaiable for pathologists

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    Victor Piana de Andrade

    2007-02-01

    Full Text Available O arranjo em matriz de amostras teciduais, ou tissue microarray (TMA, é uma técnica descrita em 1998 por Kononen et al. com ampla aceitação pela literatura mundial. Com um conceito extremamente simples, trata-se de agrupar um grande número de amostras teciduais em um único bloco de parafina, permitindo o estudo de expressão de marcadores moleculares em larga escala com grande aproveitamento do material arquivado, do tempo e dos custos. Discutimos as vantagens e limitações do método, as estratégias e técnica de construção, as aplicações e dificuldades encontradas para a patologia investigativa nos últimos cinco anos de uso no Hospital do Câncer A. C. Camargo.Tissue microarrays (TMA is a worldwide well accepted technique described in 1998 by Kononen et al. It uses an extremely simple concept of ordering hundreds of samples in just one paraffin block to evaluate protein expression in large cohorts with great advantages on costs, time and sample saving. We discuss the technique, its advantages and limitations, strategies to construct the receptor block, its usefulness and difficulties experienced in the last five years at Hospital do Cancer A.C. Camargo.

  14. Constructing Tissue Microarrays: Protocols and Methods Considering Potential Advantages and Disadvantages for Downstream Use.

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    Bingle, Lynne; Fonseca, Felipe P; Farthing, Paula M

    2017-01-01

    Tissue microarrays were first constructed in the 1980s but were used by only a limited number of researchers for a considerable period of time. In the last 10 years there has been a dramatic increase in the number of publications describing the successful use of tissue microarrays in studies aimed at discovering and validating biomarkers. This, along with the increased availability of both manual and automated microarray builders on the market, has encouraged even greater use of this novel and powerful tool. This chapter describes the basic techniques required to build a tissue microarray using a manual method in order that the theory behind the practical steps can be fully explained. Guidance is given to ensure potential disadvantages of the technique are fully considered.

  15. Tissue microarray immunohistochemical detection of brachyury is not a prognostic indicator in chordoma.

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    Zhang, Linlin; Guo, Shang; Schwab, Joseph H; Nielsen, G Petur; Choy, Edwin; Ye, Shunan; Zhang, Zhan; Mankin, Henry; Hornicek, Francis J; Duan, Zhenfeng

    2013-01-01

    Brachyury is a marker for notochord-derived tissues and neoplasms, such as chordoma. However, the prognostic relevance of brachyury expression in chordoma is still unknown. The improvement of tissue microarray technology has provided the opportunity to perform analyses of tumor tissues on a large scale in a uniform and consistent manner. This study was designed with the use of tissue microarray to determine the expression of brachyury. Brachyury expression in chordoma tissues from 78 chordoma patients was analyzed by immunohistochemical staining of tissue microarray. The clinicopathologic parameters, including gender, age, location of tumor and metastatic status were evaluated. Fifty-nine of 78 (75.64%) tumors showed nuclear staining for brachyury, and among them, 29 tumors (49.15%) showed 1+ (mobile spine. However, there was no significant relationship between brachyury expression and other clinical variables. By Kaplan-Meier analysis, brachyury expression failed to produce any significant relationship with the overall survival rate. In conclusion, brachyury expression is not a prognostic indicator in chordoma.

  16. Automated detection of regions of interest for tissue microarray experiments: an image texture analysis

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    Karaçali, Bilge; Tözeren, Aydin

    2007-01-01

    Recent research with tissue microarrays led to a rapid progress toward quantifying the expressions of large sets of biomarkers in normal and diseased tissue. However, standard procedures for sampling tissue for molecular profiling have not yet been established. This study presents a high throughput analysis of texture heterogeneity on breast tissue images for the purpose of identifying regions of interest in the tissue for molecular profiling via tissue microarray technology. Image texture of breast histology slides was described in terms of three parameters: the percentage of area occupied in an image block by chromatin (B), percentage occupied by stroma-like regions (P), and a statistical heterogeneity index H commonly used in image analysis. Texture parameters were defined and computed for each of the thousands of image blocks in our dataset using both the gray scale and color segmentation. The image blocks were then classified into three categories using the texture feature parameters in a novel statistical learning algorithm. These categories are as follows: image blocks specific to normal breast tissue, blocks specific to cancerous tissue, and those image blocks that are non-specific to normal and disease states. Gray scale and color segmentation techniques led to identification of same regions in histology slides as cancer-specific. Moreover the image blocks identified as cancer-specific belonged to those cell crowded regions in whole section image slides that were marked by two pathologists as regions of interest for further histological studies. These results indicate the high efficiency of our automated method for identifying pathologic regions of interest on histology slides. Automation of critical region identification will help minimize the inter-rater variability among different raters (pathologists) as hundreds of tumors that are used to develop an array have typically been evaluated (graded) by different pathologists. The region of interest

  17. Image microarrays derived from tissue microarrays (IMA-TMA: New resource for computer-aided diagnostic algorithm development

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    Jennifer A Hipp

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available Background: Conventional tissue microarrays (TMAs consist of cores of tissue inserted into a recipient paraffin block such that a tissue section on a single glass slide can contain numerous patient samples in a spatially structured pattern. Scanning TMAs into digital slides for subsequent analysis by computer-aided diagnostic (CAD algorithms all offers the possibility of evaluating candidate algorithms against a near-complete repertoire of variable disease morphologies. This parallel interrogation approach simplifies the evaluation, validation, and comparison of such candidate algorithms. A recently developed digital tool, digital core (dCORE, and image microarray maker (iMAM enables the capture of uniformly sized and resolution-matched images, with these representing key morphologic features and fields of view, aggregated into a single monolithic digital image file in an array format, which we define as an image microarray (IMA. We further define the TMA-IMA construct as IMA-based images derived from whole slide images of TMAs themselves. Methods: Here we describe the first combined use of the previously described dCORE and iMAM tools, toward the goal of generating a higher-order image construct, with multiple TMA cores from multiple distinct conventional TMAs assembled as a single digital image montage. This image construct served as the basis of the carrying out of a massively parallel image analysis exercise, based on the use of the previously described spatially invariant vector quantization (SIVQ algorithm. Results: Multicase, multifield TMA-IMAs of follicular lymphoma and follicular hyperplasia were separately rendered, using the aforementioned tools. Each of these two IMAs contained a distinct spectrum of morphologic heterogeneity with respect to both tingible body macrophage (TBM appearance and apoptotic body morphology. SIVQ-based pattern matching, with ring vectors selected to screen for either tingible body macrophages or apoptotic

  18. MALDI imaging mass spectrometry profiling of N-glycans in formalin-fixed paraffin embedded clinical tissue blocks and tissue microarrays.

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    Powers, Thomas W; Neely, Benjamin A; Shao, Yuan; Tang, Huiyuan; Troyer, Dean A; Mehta, Anand S; Haab, Brian B; Drake, Richard R

    2014-01-01

    A recently developed matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization imaging mass spectrometry (MALDI-IMS) method to spatially profile the location and distribution of multiple N-linked glycan species in frozen tissues has been extended and improved for the direct analysis of glycans in clinically derived formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissues. Formalin-fixed tissues from normal mouse kidney, human pancreatic and prostate cancers, and a human hepatocellular carcinoma tissue microarray were processed by antigen retrieval followed by on-tissue digestion with peptide N-glycosidase F. The released N-glycans were detected by MALDI-IMS analysis, and the structural composition of a subset of glycans could be verified directly by on-tissue collision-induced fragmentation. Other structural assignments were confirmed by off-tissue permethylation analysis combined with multiple database comparisons. Imaging of mouse kidney tissue sections demonstrates specific tissue distributions of major cellular N-linked glycoforms in the cortex and medulla. Differential tissue distribution of N-linked glycoforms was also observed in the other tissue types. The efficacy of using MALDI-IMS glycan profiling to distinguish tumor from non-tumor tissues in a tumor microarray format is also demonstrated. This MALDI-IMS workflow has the potential to be applied to any FFPE tissue block or tissue microarray to enable higher throughput analysis of the global changes in N-glycosylation associated with cancers.

  19. Validation of tissue microarray technology in squamous cell carcinoma of the esophagus

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    Boone, Judith; van Hillegersberg, Richard; van Diest, Paul J.; Offerhaus, G. Johan A.; Borel Rinkes, Inne H. M.; ten Kate, Fiebo J. W.

    2008-01-01

    Tissue microarray (TMA) technology has been developed to facilitate high-throughput immunohistochemical and in situ hybridization analysis of tissues by inserting small tissue biopsy cores into a single paraffin block. Several studies have revealed novel prognostic biomarkers in esophageal squamous

  20. Tissue microarray immunohistochemical detection of brachyury is not a prognostic indicator in chordoma.

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    Linlin Zhang

    Full Text Available Brachyury is a marker for notochord-derived tissues and neoplasms, such as chordoma. However, the prognostic relevance of brachyury expression in chordoma is still unknown. The improvement of tissue microarray technology has provided the opportunity to perform analyses of tumor tissues on a large scale in a uniform and consistent manner. This study was designed with the use of tissue microarray to determine the expression of brachyury. Brachyury expression in chordoma tissues from 78 chordoma patients was analyzed by immunohistochemical staining of tissue microarray. The clinicopathologic parameters, including gender, age, location of tumor and metastatic status were evaluated. Fifty-nine of 78 (75.64% tumors showed nuclear staining for brachyury, and among them, 29 tumors (49.15% showed 1+ (<30% positive cells staining, 15 tumors (25.42% had 2+ (31% to 60% positive cells staining, and 15 tumors (25.42% demonstrated 3+ (61% to 100% positive cells staining. Brachyury nuclear staining was detected more frequently in sacral chordomas than in chordomas of the mobile spine. However, there was no significant relationship between brachyury expression and other clinical variables. By Kaplan-Meier analysis, brachyury expression failed to produce any significant relationship with the overall survival rate. In conclusion, brachyury expression is not a prognostic indicator in chordoma.

  1. Semi-automatic identification of punching areas for tissue microarray building: the tubular breast cancer pilot study

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    Beltrame Francesco

    2010-11-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Tissue MicroArray technology aims to perform immunohistochemical staining on hundreds of different tissue samples simultaneously. It allows faster analysis, considerably reducing costs incurred in staining. A time consuming phase of the methodology is the selection of tissue areas within paraffin blocks: no utilities have been developed for the identification of areas to be punched from the donor block and assembled in the recipient block. Results The presented work supports, in the specific case of a primary subtype of breast cancer (tubular breast cancer, the semi-automatic discrimination and localization between normal and pathological regions within the tissues. The diagnosis is performed by analysing specific morphological features of the sample such as the absence of a double layer of cells around the lumen and the decay of a regular glands-and-lobules structure. These features are analysed using an algorithm which performs the extraction of morphological parameters from images and compares them to experimentally validated threshold values. Results are satisfactory since in most of the cases the automatic diagnosis matches the response of the pathologists. In particular, on a total of 1296 sub-images showing normal and pathological areas of breast specimens, algorithm accuracy, sensitivity and specificity are respectively 89%, 84% and 94%. Conclusions The proposed work is a first attempt to demonstrate that automation in the Tissue MicroArray field is feasible and it can represent an important tool for scientists to cope with this high-throughput technique.

  2. Identification of Differentially Expressed IGFBP5-Related Genes in Breast Cancer Tumor Tissues Using cDNA Microarray Experiments.

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    Akkiprik, Mustafa; Peker, İrem; Özmen, Tolga; Amuran, Gökçe Güllü; Güllüoğlu, Bahadır M; Kaya, Handan; Özer, Ayşe

    2015-11-10

    IGFBP5 is an important regulatory protein in breast cancer progression. We tried to identify differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between breast tumor tissues with IGFBP5 overexpression and their adjacent normal tissues. In this study, thirty-eight breast cancer and adjacent normal breast tissue samples were used to determine IGFBP5 expression by qPCR. cDNA microarrays were applied to the highest IGFBP5 overexpressed tumor samples compared to their adjacent normal breast tissue. Microarray analysis revealed that a total of 186 genes were differentially expressed in breast cancer compared with normal breast tissues. Of the 186 genes, 169 genes were downregulated and 17 genes were upregulated in the tumor samples. KEGG pathway analyses showed that protein digestion and absorption, focal adhesion, salivary secretion, drug metabolism-cytochrome P450, and phenylalanine metabolism pathways are involved. Among these DEGs, the prominent top two genes (MMP11 and COL1A1) which potentially correlated with IGFBP5 were selected for validation using real time RT-qPCR. Only COL1A1 expression showed a consistent upregulation with IGFBP5 expression and COL1A1 and MMP11 were significantly positively correlated. We concluded that the discovery of coordinately expressed genes related with IGFBP5 might contribute to understanding of the molecular mechanism of the function of IGFBP5 in breast cancer. Further functional studies on DEGs and association with IGFBP5 may identify novel biomarkers for clinical applications in breast cancer.

  3. Numerical and structural genomic aberrations are reliably detectable in tissue microarrays of formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tumor samples by fluorescence in-situ hybridization.

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    Heike Horn

    Full Text Available Few data are available regarding the reliability of fluorescence in-situ hybridization (FISH, especially for chromosomal deletions, in high-throughput settings using tissue microarrays (TMAs. We performed a comprehensive FISH study for the detection of chromosomal translocations and deletions in formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded (FFPE tumor specimens arranged in TMA format. We analyzed 46 B-cell lymphoma (B-NHL specimens with known karyotypes for translocations of IGH-, BCL2-, BCL6- and MYC-genes. Locus-specific DNA probes were used for the detection of deletions in chromosome bands 6q21 and 9p21 in 62 follicular lymphomas (FL and six malignant mesothelioma (MM samples, respectively. To test for aberrant signals generated by truncation of nuclei following sectioning of FFPE tissue samples, cell line dilutions with 9p21-deletions were embedded into paraffin blocks. The overall TMA hybridization efficiency was 94%. FISH results regarding translocations matched karyotyping data in 93%. As for chromosomal deletions, sectioning artefacts occurred in 17% to 25% of cells, suggesting that the proportion of cells showing deletions should exceed 25% to be reliably detectable. In conclusion, FISH represents a robust tool for the detection of structural as well as numerical aberrations in FFPE tissue samples in a TMA-based high-throughput setting, when rigorous cut-off values and appropriate controls are maintained, and, of note, was superior to quantitative PCR approaches.

  4. The tissue microarray OWL schema: An open-source tool for sharing tissue microarray data

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    Hyunseok P Kang

    2010-01-01

    Full Text Available Background: Tissue microarrays (TMAs are enormously useful tools for translational research, but incompatibilities in database systems between various researchers and institutions prevent the efficient sharing of data that could help realize their full potential. Resource Description Framework (RDF provides a flexible method to represent knowledge in triples, which take the form Subject- Predicate-Object. All data resources are described using Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs, which are global in scope. We present an OWL (Web Ontology Language schema that expands upon the TMA data exchange specification to address this issue and assist in data sharing and integration. Methods: A minimal OWL schema was designed containing only concepts specific to TMA experiments. More general data elements were incorporated from predefined ontologies such as the NCI thesaurus. URIs were assigned using the Linked Data format. Results: We present examples of files utilizing the schema and conversion of XML data (similar to the TMA DES to OWL. Conclusion: By utilizing predefined ontologies and global unique identifiers, this OWL schema provides a solution to the limitations of XML, which represents concepts defined in a localized setting. This will help increase the utilization of tissue resources, facilitating collaborative translational research efforts.

  5. High-throughput immunophenotyping of 43 ferret lymphomas using tissue microarray technology

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hammer, Anne Sofie; Williams, B.; Dietz, H.H.

    2007-01-01

    To validate the use of the tissue microarray (TMA) method for immunophenotyping of ferret lymphomas, a TMA was constructed containing duplicate 1-mm cores sampled from 112 paraffin-embedded lymphoma tissue specimens obtained from 43 ferret lymphoma cases. Immunohistochemical (IHC) expression of CD3......, CD79 alpha, and Ki-67 (MIB-1) was determined by TMA and whole mount (WM) staining of each individual case for result comparison. There was a high correlation between CD79 alpha and CD3 results comparing ferret TMA and WM sections (kappa statistic 0.71-0.73 for single-core TMA and 0.......79-0.95 for duplicate-core TMA) and between continuous data from Ki-67 staining of ferret TMA sections and WM sections (concordance correlation coefficients 0.77 for single cores and 0.87 for duplicate cores). Subsequently, a panel of commercially available antibodies was applied to the TMA for the analysis...

  6. Tissue microarrays for testing basal biomarkers in familial breast cancer cases

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rozany Mucha Dufloth

    Full Text Available CONTEXT AND OBJECTIVE: The proteins p63, p-cadherin and CK5 are consistently expressed by the basal and myoepithelial cells of the breast, although their expression in sporadic and familial breast cancer cases has yet to be fully defined. The aim here was to study the basal immunopro-file of a breast cancer case series using tissue microarray technology. DESIGN AND SETTING: This was a cross-sectional study at Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Brazil, and the Institute of Pathology and Mo-lecular Immunology, Porto, Portugal. METHODS: Immunohistochemistry using the antibodies p63, CK5 and p-cadherin, and also estrogen receptor (ER and Human Epidermal Receptor Growth Factor 2 (HER2, was per-formed on 168 samples from a breast cancer case series. The criteria for identifying women at high risk were based on those of the Breast Cancer Linkage Consortium. RESULTS: Familial tumors were more frequently positive for the p-cadherin (p = 0.0004, p63 (p < 0.0001 and CK5 (p < 0.0001 than was sporadic cancer. Moreover, familial tumors had coexpression of the basal biomarkers CK5+/ p63+, grouped two by two (OR = 34.34, while absence of coexpression (OR = 0.13 was associ-ated with the sporadic cancer phenotype. CONCLUSION: Familial breast cancer was found to be associated with basal biomarkers, using tissue microarray technology. Therefore, characterization of the familial breast cancer phenotype will improve the understanding of breast carcinogenesis.

  7. Tissue Microarray TechnologyA Brief Review

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ramya S Vokuda

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available In this era of modern revolutionisation in the field of medical laboratory technology, everyone is aiming at taking the innovations from laboratory to bed side. One such technique that is most relevant to the pathologic community is Tissue Microarray (TMA technology. This is becoming quite popular amongst all the members of this family, right from laboratory scientists to clinicians and residents to technologists. The reason for this technique to gain popularity is attributed to its cost effectiveness and time saving protocols. Though, every technique is accompanied by disadvantages, the benefits out number them. This technique is very versatile as many downstream molecular assays such as immunohistochemistry, cytogenetic studies, Fluorescent In situ-Hybridisation (FISH etc., can be carried out on a single slide with multiple numbers of samples. It is a very practical approach that aids effectively to identify novel biomarkers in cancer diagnostics and therapeutics. It helps in assessing the molecular markers on a large scale very quickly. Also, the quality assurance protocols in pathological laboratory has exploited TMA to a great extent. However, the application of TMA technology is beyond oncology. This review shall focus on the different aspects of this technology such as construction of TMA, instrumentation, types, advantages and disadvantages and utilisation of the technique in various disease conditions.

  8. The role of metalloendopeptidases in oropharyngeal carcinomas assessed by tissue microarray.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ribeiro, Daniel A; Nascimento, Fabio D; Fracalossi, Ana Carolina C; Noguti, Juliana; Oshima, Celina T F; Ihara, Silvia S M; Franco, Marcello F

    2011-01-01

    The goal of this study was to investigate the expression of some metalloendopeptidases in squamous cell carcinomas of the oropharynx as well as its relation to histological differentiation, staging of disease, and prognosis. Paraffin blocks from 21 primary tumors were obtained from archives of the Department of Pathology, Paulista Medical School, Federal University of Sao Paulo, UNIFESP/EPM. Immunohistochemistry was used to detect the expression of EP24.15 and EP24.16 by means of tissue microarrays. Expression of EP24.15 or EP24.16 was not correlated with the stage of disease, histopathological grading or recurrence in squamous cell carcinomas of the oropharynx. In summary, our results support the notion that EP24.15 and EP24.16 are expressed in carcinoma of the oropharynx; however, these do not appear to be suitable biomarkers for histological grading, disease stage or recurrence as depicted by tissue microarrays and immunohistochemistry.

  9. Tissue Microarray Analysis Applied to Bone Diagenesis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mello, Rafael Barrios; Silva, Maria Regina Regis; Alves, Maria Teresa Seixas; Evison, Martin Paul; Guimarães, Marco Aurelio; Francisco, Rafaella Arrabaca; Astolphi, Rafael Dias; Iwamura, Edna Sadayo Miazato

    2017-01-04

    Taphonomic processes affecting bone post mortem are important in forensic, archaeological and palaeontological investigations. In this study, the application of tissue microarray (TMA) analysis to a sample of femoral bone specimens from 20 exhumed individuals of known period of burial and age at death is described. TMA allows multiplexing of subsamples, permitting standardized comparative analysis of adjacent sections in 3-D and of representative cross-sections of a large number of specimens. Standard hematoxylin and eosin, periodic acid-Schiff and silver methenamine, and picrosirius red staining, and CD31 and CD34 immunohistochemistry were applied to TMA sections. Osteocyte and osteocyte lacuna counts, percent bone matrix loss, and fungal spheroid element counts could be measured and collagen fibre bundles observed in all specimens. Decalcification with 7% nitric acid proceeded more rapidly than with 0.5 M EDTA and may offer better preservation of histological and cellular structure. No endothelial cells could be detected using CD31 and CD34 immunohistochemistry. Correlation between osteocytes per lacuna and age at death may reflect reported age-related responses to microdamage. Methodological limitations and caveats, and results of the TMA analysis of post mortem diagenesis in bone are discussed, and implications for DNA survival and recovery considered.

  10. Application of TMA (Tissue micro-array) in the observation of apoptotic cascade in postradiation damage in avian medicine

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fridman, E.; Skarda, J.; Skardova, I.

    2006-01-01

    The study of apoptotic cascade by the use of relatively new technique in avian medicine: TMA may help in early detection and prevention of acquired immunodeficiency caused by the influence of a variety of pathogenic and non-pathogenic environmental factors, which may result in severe economical losses in conditions of intensive poultry farming. There has not been any report of applying this method in veterinary medicine. Tissue micro-array (TMA) technology allows rapid visualization of molecular targets in thousands of tissue specimens at a time, either at the DNA, RNA or protein level. The technique facilitates rapid translation of molecular discoveries to clinical applications. This technology has a number of advantages compared with conventional techniques: speed and high throughput, standardization and experimental uniformity, ease of use, all histochemical and molecular detection techniques can be used, decreased assay volume, preservation of original block, and conservation of valuable tissue etc. The aim of the present work were the study of immunosuppression and apoptotic cascade and possibilities of application of tissue micro-array in chicken in experimental condition and diagnostics in avian medicine in general. The selection of samples from avian primary immune organs: thymus and Bursa Fabric was done after gamma irradiation and infectious bursal virus infection (IBDV). (authors)

  11. Elimination of heparin interference during microarray processing of fresh and biobank-archived blood samples.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hebels, Dennie G A J; van Herwijnen, Marcel H M; Brauers, Karen J J; de Kok, Theo M C M; Chalkiadaki, Georgia; Kyrtopoulos, Soterios A; Kleinjans, Jos C S

    2014-07-01

    In the context of environmental health research, biobank blood samples have recently been identified as suitable for high-throughput omics analyses enabling the identification of new biomarkers of exposure and disease. However, blood samples containing the anti-coagulant heparin could complicate transcriptomic analysis because heparin may inhibit RNA polymerase causing inefficient cRNA synthesis and fluorophore labelling. We investigated the inhibitory effect of heparin and the influence of storage conditions (0 or 3 hr bench times, storage at room temperature or -80°C) on fluorophore labelling in heparinized fresh human buffy coat and whole blood biobank samples during the mRNA work-up protocol for microarray analysis. Subsequently, we removed heparin by lithium chloride (LiCl) treatment and performed a quality control analysis of LiCl-treated biobank sample microarrays to prove their suitability for downstream data analysis. Both fresh and biobank samples experienced varying degrees of heparin-induced inhibition of fluorophore labelling, making most samples unusable for microarray analysis. RNA derived from EDTA and citrate blood was not inhibited. No effect of bench time was observed but room temperature storage gave slightly better results. Strong correlations were observed between original blood sample RNA yield and the amount of synthesized cRNA. LiCl treatment restored sample quality to normal standards in both fresh and biobank samples and the previously identified correlations disappeared. Microarrays hybridized with LiCl-treated biobank samples were of excellent quality with no identifiable influence of heparin. We conclude that, to obtain high quality results, in most cases heparin removal is essential in blood-derived RNA samples intended for microarray analysis. Copyright © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  12. The tissue microarray data exchange specification: Extending TMA DES to provide flexible scoring and incorporate virtual slides

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alexander Wright

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available Background: Tissue MicroArrays (TMAs are a high throughput technology for rapid analysis of protein expression across hundreds of patient samples. Often, data relating to TMAs is specific to the clinical trial or experiment it is being used for, and not interoperable. The Tissue Microarray Data Exchange Specification (TMA DES is a set of eXtensible Markup Language (XML-based protocols for storing and sharing digitized Tissue Microarray data. XML data are enclosed by named tags which serve as identifiers. These tag names can be Common Data Elements (CDEs, which have a predefined meaning or semantics. By using this specification in a laboratory setting with increasing demands for digital pathology integration, we found that the data structure lacked the ability to cope with digital slide imaging in respect to web-enabled digital pathology systems and advanced scoring techniques. Materials and Methods: By employing user centric design, and observing behavior in relation to TMA scoring and associated data, the TMA DES format was extended to accommodate the current limitations. This was done with specific focus on developing a generic tool for handling any given scoring system, and utilizing data for multiple observations and observers. Results: DTDs were created to validate the extensions of the TMA DES protocol, and a test set of data containing scores for 6,708 TMA core images was generated. The XML was then read into an image processing algorithm to utilize the digital pathology data extensions, and scoring results were easily stored alongside the existing multiple pathologist scores. Conclusions: By extending the TMA DES format to include digital pathology data and customizable scoring systems for TMAs, the new system facilitates the collaboration between pathologists and organizations, and can be used in automatic or manual data analysis. This allows complying systems to effectively communicate complex and varied scoring data.

  13. A prototype for unsupervised analysis of tissue microarrays for cancer research and diagnostics.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Wenjin; Reiss, Michael; Foran, David J

    2004-06-01

    The tissue microarray (TMA) technique enables researchers to extract small cylinders of tissue from histological sections and arrange them in a matrix configuration on a recipient paraffin block such that hundreds can be analyzed simultaneously. TMA offers several advantages over traditional specimen preparation by maximizing limited tissue resources and providing a highly efficient means for visualizing molecular targets. By enabling researchers to reliably determine the protein expression profile for specific types of cancer, it may be possible to elucidate the mechanism by which healthy tissues are transformed into malignancies. Currently, the primary methods used to evaluate arrays involve the interactive review of TMA samples while they are viewed under a microscope, subjectively evaluated, and scored by a technician. This process is extremely slow, tedious, and prone to error. In order to facilitate large-scale, multi-institutional studies, a more automated and reliable means for analyzing TMAs is needed. We report here a web-based prototype which features automated imaging, registration, and distributed archiving of TMAs in multiuser network environments. The system utilizes a principal color decomposition approach to identify and characterize the predominant staining signatures of specimens in color space. This strategy was shown to be reliable for detecting and quantifying the immunohistochemical expression levels for TMAs.

  14. PhyloChip™ microarray comparison of sampling methods used for coral microbial ecology

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kellogg, Christina A.; Piceno, Yvette M.; Tom, Lauren M.; DeSantis, Todd Z.; Zawada, David G.; Andersen, Gary L.

    2012-01-01

    Interest in coral microbial ecology has been increasing steadily over the last decade, yet standardized methods of sample collection still have not been defined. Two methods were compared for their ability to sample coral-associated microbial communities: tissue punches and foam swabs, the latter being less invasive and preferred by reef managers. Four colonies of star coral, Montastraea annularis, were sampled in the Dry Tortugas National Park (two healthy and two with white plague disease). The PhyloChip™ G3 microarray was used to assess microbial community structure of amplified 16S rRNA gene sequences. Samples clustered based on methodology rather than coral colony. Punch samples from healthy and diseased corals were distinct. All swab samples clustered closely together with the seawater control and did not group according to the health state of the corals. Although more microbial taxa were detected by the swab method, there is a much larger overlap between the water control and swab samples than punch samples, suggesting some of the additional diversity is due to contamination from water absorbed by the swab. While swabs are useful for noninvasive studies of the coral surface mucus layer, these results show that they are not optimal for studies of coral disease.

  15. The PowerAtlas: a power and sample size atlas for microarray experimental design and research

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wang Jelai

    2006-02-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Microarrays permit biologists to simultaneously measure the mRNA abundance of thousands of genes. An important issue facing investigators planning microarray experiments is how to estimate the sample size required for good statistical power. What is the projected sample size or number of replicate chips needed to address the multiple hypotheses with acceptable accuracy? Statistical methods exist for calculating power based upon a single hypothesis, using estimates of the variability in data from pilot studies. There is, however, a need for methods to estimate power and/or required sample sizes in situations where multiple hypotheses are being tested, such as in microarray experiments. In addition, investigators frequently do not have pilot data to estimate the sample sizes required for microarray studies. Results To address this challenge, we have developed a Microrarray PowerAtlas 1. The atlas enables estimation of statistical power by allowing investigators to appropriately plan studies by building upon previous studies that have similar experimental characteristics. Currently, there are sample sizes and power estimates based on 632 experiments from Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO. The PowerAtlas also permits investigators to upload their own pilot data and derive power and sample size estimates from these data. This resource will be updated regularly with new datasets from GEO and other databases such as The Nottingham Arabidopsis Stock Center (NASC. Conclusion This resource provides a valuable tool for investigators who are planning efficient microarray studies and estimating required sample sizes.

  16. Expression profiling of cell cycle regulatory proteins in oropharyngeal carcinomas using tissue microarrays.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ribeiro, Daniel A; Nascimento, Fabio D; Fracalossi, Ana Carolina C; Gomes, Thiago S; Oshima, Celina T F; Franco, Marcello F

    2010-01-01

    The aim of this study was to investigate the expressions of cell cycle regulatory proteins such as p53, p16, p21, and Rb in squamous cell carcinoma of the oropharynx and their relation to histological differentiation, staging of disease, and prognosis. Paraffin blocks from 21 primary tumors were obtained from archives of the Department of Pathology, Paulista Medical School, Federal University of Sao Paulo, UNIFESP/EPM. Immunohistochemistry was used to detect the expression of p53, p16, p21, and Rb by means of tissue microarrays. Expression of p53, p21, p16 and Rb was not correlated with the stage of disease, histopathological grading or recurrence in squamous cell carcinoma of the oropharynx. Taken together, our results suggest that p53, p16, p21 and Rb are not reliable biomarkers for prognosis of the tumor severity or recurrence in squamous cell carcinoma of the oropharynx as depicted by tissue microarrays and immunohistochemistry.

  17. Microarrays in brain research: the good, the bad and the ugly.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mirnics, K

    2001-06-01

    Making sense of microarray data is a complex process, in which the interpretation of findings will depend on the overall experimental design and judgement of the investigator performing the analysis. As a result, differences in tissue harvesting, microarray types, sample labelling and data analysis procedures make post hoc sharing of microarray data a great challenge. To ensure rapid and meaningful data exchange, we need to create some order out of the existing chaos. In these ground-breaking microarray standardization and data sharing efforts, NIH agencies should take a leading role

  18. Evaluation of gene expression data generated from expired Affymetrix GeneChip® microarrays using MAQC reference RNA samples

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tong Weida

    2010-10-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background The Affymetrix GeneChip® system is a commonly used platform for microarray analysis but the technology is inherently expensive. Unfortunately, changes in experimental planning and execution, such as the unavailability of previously anticipated samples or a shift in research focus, may render significant numbers of pre-purchased GeneChip® microarrays unprocessed before their manufacturer’s expiration dates. Researchers and microarray core facilities wonder whether expired microarrays are still useful for gene expression analysis. In addition, it was not clear whether the two human reference RNA samples established by the MAQC project in 2005 still maintained their transcriptome integrity over a period of four years. Experiments were conducted to answer these questions. Results Microarray data were generated in 2009 in three replicates for each of the two MAQC samples with either expired Affymetrix U133A or unexpired U133Plus2 microarrays. These results were compared with data obtained in 2005 on the U133Plus2 microarray. The percentage of overlap between the lists of differentially expressed genes (DEGs from U133Plus2 microarray data generated in 2009 and in 2005 was 97.44%. While there was some degree of fold change compression in the expired U133A microarrays, the percentage of overlap between the lists of DEGs from the expired and unexpired microarrays was as high as 96.99%. Moreover, the microarray data generated using the expired U133A microarrays in 2009 were highly concordant with microarray and TaqMan® data generated by the MAQC project in 2005. Conclusions Our results demonstrated that microarray data generated using U133A microarrays, which were more than four years past the manufacturer’s expiration date, were highly specific and consistent with those from unexpired microarrays in identifying DEGs despite some appreciable fold change compression and decrease in sensitivity. Our data also suggested that the

  19. Identification of potential prognostic markers for vulvar cancer using immunohistochemical staining of tissue microarrays.

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Fons, G.; Burger, M.P.; Kate, F.J. ten; Velden, J. van der

    2007-01-01

    The aim of this study is to determine immunohistochemical markers with prognostic significance for disease-specific survival in patients with squamous cell cancer of the vulva. The study material consisted of slides and paraffin blocks of 50 vulvectomy specimens. A tissue microarray was constructed

  20. Re-Punching Tissue Microarrays Is Possible: Why Can This Be Useful and How to Do It

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Aurélien Lacombe

    2015-05-01

    Full Text Available Tissue microarray (TMA methodology allows the concomitant analysis of hundreds of tissue specimens arrayed in the same manner on a recipient block. Subsequently, all samples can be processed under identical conditions, such as antigen retrieval procedure, reagent concentrations, incubation times with antibodies/probes, and escaping the inter-assays variability. Therefore, the use of TMA has revolutionized histopathology translational research projects and has become a tool very often used for putative biomarker investigations. TMAs are particularly relevant for large scale analysis of a defined disease entity. In the course of these exploratory studies, rare subpopulations can be discovered or identified. This can refer to subsets of patients with more particular phenotypic or genotypic disease with low incidence or to patients receiving a particular treatment. Such rare cohorts should be collected for more specific investigations at a later time, when, possibly, more samples of a rare identity will be available as well as more knowledge derived from concomitant, e.g., genetic, investigations will have been acquired. In this article we analyze for the first time the limits and opportunities to construct new TMA blocks using tissues from older available arrays and supplementary donor blocks. In summary, we describe the reasons and technical details for the construction of rare disease entities arrays.

  1. Identification of molecular mechanisms of radiation-induced vascular damage in normal tissues using microarray analyses

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kruse, J.J.C.M.; Te Poele, J.A.M.; Russell, N.S.; Boersma, L.J.; Stewart, F.A.

    2003-01-01

    Radiation-induced telangiectasia, characterized by thin-walled dilated blood vessels, can be a serious late complication in patients that have been previously treated for cancer. It might cause cosmetic problems when occurring in the skin, and excessive bleeding requiring surgery when occurring in rectal mucosa. The mechanisms underlying the development of radiation-induced telangiectasia are unclear. The aim of the present study is to determine whether microarrays are useful for studying mechanisms of radiation-induced telangiectasia. The second aim is to test the hypotheses that telangiectasia is characterized by a final common pathway in different tissues. Microarray experiments were performed using amplified RNA from (sham)irradiated mouse tissues (kidney, rectum) at different intervals (1-30 weeks) after irradiation. After normalization procedures, the differentially expressed genes were identified. Control/repeat experiments were done to confirm that the observations were not artifacts of the array procedure. The mouse kidney experiments showed significant upregulation of 31 and 42 genes and downregulation of 9 and 4 genes at 10 and 20 weeks after irradiation, respectively. Irradiated mouse rectum has 278 upregulated and 537 downregulated genes at 10 weeks and 86 upregulated and 29 downregulated genes at 20 weeks. During the development of telangiectasia, 19 upregulated genes and 5 downregulated genes were common to both tissues. Upregulation of Jagged-1, known to play a role in angiogenesis, is particularly interesting in the context of radiation-induced telangiectasia. Microarrays are affective discovery tools to identify novel genes of interest, which may be involved in radiation-induced normal tissue injury. Using information from control arrays (particularly straight color, color reverse and self-self experiments) allowed for a more accurate and reproducible identification of differentially expressed genes than the selection of an arbitrary 2-fold change

  2. Porous Silicon Antibody Microarrays for Quantitative Analysis: Measurement of Free and Total PSA in Clinical Plasma Samples

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tojo, Axel; Malm, Johan; Marko-Varga, György; Lilja, Hans; Laurell, Thomas

    2014-01-01

    The antibody microarrays have become widespread, but their use for quantitative analyses in clinical samples has not yet been established. We investigated an immunoassay based on nanoporous silicon antibody microarrays for quantification of total prostate-specific-antigen (PSA) in 80 clinical plasma samples, and provide quantitative data from a duplex microarray assay that simultaneously quantifies free and total PSA in plasma. To further develop the assay the porous silicon chips was placed into a standard 96-well microtiter plate for higher throughput analysis. The samples analyzed by this quantitative microarray were 80 plasma samples obtained from men undergoing clinical PSA testing (dynamic range: 0.14-44ng/ml, LOD: 0.14ng/ml). The second dataset, measuring free PSA (dynamic range: 0.40-74.9ng/ml, LOD: 0.47ng/ml) and total PSA (dynamic range: 0.87-295ng/ml, LOD: 0.76ng/ml), was also obtained from the clinical routine. The reference for the quantification was a commercially available assay, the ProStatus PSA Free/Total DELFIA. In an analysis of 80 plasma samples the microarray platform performs well across the range of total PSA levels. This assay might have the potential to substitute for the large-scale microtiter plate format in diagnostic applications. The duplex assay paves the way for a future quantitative multiplex assay, which analyses several prostate cancer biomarkers simultaneously. PMID:22921878

  3. Reconstructing the temporal ordering of biological samples using microarray data.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Magwene, Paul M; Lizardi, Paul; Kim, Junhyong

    2003-05-01

    Accurate time series for biological processes are difficult to estimate due to problems of synchronization, temporal sampling and rate heterogeneity. Methods are needed that can utilize multi-dimensional data, such as those resulting from DNA microarray experiments, in order to reconstruct time series from unordered or poorly ordered sets of observations. We present a set of algorithms for estimating temporal orderings from unordered sets of sample elements. The techniques we describe are based on modifications of a minimum-spanning tree calculated from a weighted, undirected graph. We demonstrate the efficacy of our approach by applying these techniques to an artificial data set as well as several gene expression data sets derived from DNA microarray experiments. In addition to estimating orderings, the techniques we describe also provide useful heuristics for assessing relevant properties of sample datasets such as noise and sampling intensity, and we show how a data structure called a PQ-tree can be used to represent uncertainty in a reconstructed ordering. Academic implementations of the ordering algorithms are available as source code (in the programming language Python) on our web site, along with documentation on their use. The artificial 'jelly roll' data set upon which the algorithm was tested is also available from this web site. The publicly available gene expression data may be found at http://genome-www.stanford.edu/cellcycle/ and http://caulobacter.stanford.edu/CellCycle/.

  4. Avaliação de combinações de técnicas alternativas de construção e montagem de blocos de tissue microarray Evaluation of alternative technique combinations of building and preparation of tissue microarrays blocks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ivan Tiburtino dos Santos Junior

    2010-02-01

    Full Text Available INTRODUÇÃO E OBJETIVOS: O objetivo deste estudo foi pesquisar diferentes métodos alternativos de tissue microarray (TMA à técnica original e conduzir adaptações desses, combinando diferentes métodos de punção das amostras teciduais e de montagem dos blocos de TMA, de modo a introduzir no Laboratório de Patologia Bucal da Faculdade de Odontologia de Pernambuco da Universidade de Pernambuco (LPBFOP/UPE técnicas de TMA facilmente operáveis, reproduzíveis e de baixo custo. RESULTADOS: Foram reproduzidas quatro técnicas de punção dos blocos doadores e duas de montagem dos blocos de TMA, resultando em oito combinações possíveis. Para cada combinação, foram confeccionados três blocos de TMA, contendo nove, 16 e 32 amostras, respectivamente, e avaliadas quanto a perda de amostras, custo, tempo de confecção e dificuldade. Para blocos com nove amostras, a combinação 2 mostrou-se a mais adequada; para blocos com 16, a combinação 6 foi constatada como a mais eficiente; e para blocos com 32, a combinação 1 apresentou o melhor custo-benefício. CONCLUSÃO: Foi concluído que a escolha da combinação a ser utilizada depende do número de amostras a serem colocadas nos blocos de TMA.INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to investigate different alternative tissue microarray (TMA techniques and to make adaptations, combining different tissue punch and TMA block construction techniques in order to introduce easily reproducible, operational and cost effective TMA techniques in the Oral Pathology Laboratory of Pernambuco College of Dentistry, State University of Pernambuco. METHODS: Four donor punch techniques and two TMA block construction techniques were performed, resulting in a total of eight possible combinations. For each combination three TMA blocks were made, containing 9, 16 and 32 samples, respectively. They were evaluated as to sample loss, cost effectiveness, construction time and difficulty. RESULTS: For

  5. Direct calibration of PICKY-designed microarrays

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ronald Pamela C

    2009-10-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Few microarrays have been quantitatively calibrated to identify optimal hybridization conditions because it is difficult to precisely determine the hybridization characteristics of a microarray using biologically variable cDNA samples. Results Using synthesized samples with known concentrations of specific oligonucleotides, a series of microarray experiments was conducted to evaluate microarrays designed by PICKY, an oligo microarray design software tool, and to test a direct microarray calibration method based on the PICKY-predicted, thermodynamically closest nontarget information. The complete set of microarray experiment results is archived in the GEO database with series accession number GSE14717. Additional data files and Perl programs described in this paper can be obtained from the website http://www.complex.iastate.edu under the PICKY Download area. Conclusion PICKY-designed microarray probes are highly reliable over a wide range of hybridization temperatures and sample concentrations. The microarray calibration method reported here allows researchers to experimentally optimize their hybridization conditions. Because this method is straightforward, uses existing microarrays and relatively inexpensive synthesized samples, it can be used by any lab that uses microarrays designed by PICKY. In addition, other microarrays can be reanalyzed by PICKY to obtain the thermodynamically closest nontarget information for calibration.

  6. High-throughput simultaneous analysis of RNA, protein, and lipid biomarkers in heterogeneous tissue samples.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Reiser, Vladimír; Smith, Ryan C; Xue, Jiyan; Kurtz, Marc M; Liu, Rong; Legrand, Cheryl; He, Xuanmin; Yu, Xiang; Wong, Peggy; Hinchcliffe, John S; Tanen, Michael R; Lazar, Gloria; Zieba, Renata; Ichetovkin, Marina; Chen, Zhu; O'Neill, Edward A; Tanaka, Wesley K; Marton, Matthew J; Liao, Jason; Morris, Mark; Hailman, Eric; Tokiwa, George Y; Plump, Andrew S

    2011-11-01

    With expanding biomarker discovery efforts and increasing costs of drug development, it is critical to maximize the value of mass-limited clinical samples. The main limitation of available methods is the inability to isolate and analyze, from a single sample, molecules requiring incompatible extraction methods. Thus, we developed a novel semiautomated method for tissue processing and tissue milling and division (TMAD). We used a SilverHawk atherectomy catheter to collect atherosclerotic plaques from patients requiring peripheral atherectomy. Tissue preservation by flash freezing was compared with immersion in RNAlater®, and tissue grinding by traditional mortar and pestle was compared with TMAD. Comparators were protein, RNA, and lipid yield and quality. Reproducibility of analyte yield from aliquots of the same tissue sample processed by TMAD was also measured. The quantity and quality of biomarkers extracted from tissue prepared by TMAD was at least as good as that extracted from tissue stored and prepared by traditional means. TMAD enabled parallel analysis of gene expression (quantitative reverse-transcription PCR, microarray), protein composition (ELISA), and lipid content (biochemical assay) from as little as 20 mg of tissue. The mean correlation was r = 0.97 in molecular composition (RNA, protein, or lipid) between aliquots of individual samples generated by TMAD. We also demonstrated that it is feasible to use TMAD in a large-scale clinical study setting. The TMAD methodology described here enables semiautomated, high-throughput sampling of small amounts of heterogeneous tissue specimens by multiple analytical techniques with generally improved quality of recovered biomolecules.

  7. A texture based pattern recognition approach to distinguish melanoma from non-melanoma cells in histopathological tissue microarray sections.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Elton Rexhepaj

    Full Text Available AIMS: Immunohistochemistry is a routine practice in clinical cancer diagnostics and also an established technology for tissue-based research regarding biomarker discovery efforts. Tedious manual assessment of immunohistochemically stained tissue needs to be fully automated to take full advantage of the potential for high throughput analyses enabled by tissue microarrays and digital pathology. Such automated tools also need to be reproducible for different experimental conditions and biomarker targets. In this study we present a novel supervised melanoma specific pattern recognition approach that is fully automated and quantitative. METHODS AND RESULTS: Melanoma samples were immunostained for the melanocyte specific target, Melan-A. Images representing immunostained melanoma tissue were then digitally processed to segment regions of interest, highlighting Melan-A positive and negative areas. Color deconvolution was applied to each region of interest to separate the channel containing the immunohistochemistry signal from the hematoxylin counterstaining channel. A support vector machine melanoma classification model was learned from a discovery melanoma patient cohort (n = 264 and subsequently validated on an independent cohort of melanoma patient tissue sample images (n = 157. CONCLUSION: Here we propose a novel method that takes advantage of utilizing an immuhistochemical marker highlighting melanocytes to fully automate the learning of a general melanoma cell classification model. The presented method can be applied on any protein of interest and thus provides a tool for quantification of immunohistochemistry-based protein expression in melanoma.

  8. Comparison of microarray platforms for measuring differential microRNA expression in paired normal/cancer colon tissues.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Maurizio Callari

    Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Microarray technology applied to microRNA (miRNA profiling is a promising tool in many research fields; nevertheless, independent studies characterizing the same pathology have often reported poorly overlapping results. miRNA analysis methods have only recently been systematically compared but only in few cases using clinical samples. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We investigated the inter-platform reproducibility of four miRNA microarray platforms (Agilent, Exiqon, Illumina, and Miltenyi, comparing nine paired tumor/normal colon tissues. The most concordant and selected discordant miRNAs were further studied by quantitative RT-PCR. Globally, a poor overlap among differentially expressed miRNAs identified by each platform was found. Nevertheless, for eight miRNAs high agreement in differential expression among the four platforms and comparability to qRT-PCR was observed. Furthermore, most of the miRNA sets identified by each platform are coherently enriched in data from the other platforms and the great majority of colon cancer associated miRNA sets derived from the literature were validated in our data, independently from the platform. Computational integration of miRNA and gene expression profiles suggested that anti-correlated predicted target genes of differentially expressed miRNAs are commonly enriched in cancer-related pathways and in genes involved in glycolysis and nutrient transport. CONCLUSIONS: Technical and analytical challenges in measuring miRNAs still remain and further research is required in order to increase consistency between different microarray-based methodologies. However, a better inter-platform agreement was found by looking at miRNA sets instead of single miRNAs and through a miRNAs - gene expression integration approach.

  9. 3D Biomaterial Microarrays for Regenerative Medicine

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Gaharwar, Akhilesh K.; Arpanaei, Ayyoob; Andresen, Thomas Lars

    2015-01-01

    Three dimensional (3D) biomaterial microarrays hold enormous promise for regenerative medicine because of their ability to accelerate the design and fabrication of biomimetic materials. Such tissue-like biomaterials can provide an appropriate microenvironment for stimulating and controlling stem...... for tissue engineering and drug screening applications....... cell differentiation into tissue-specifi c lineages. The use of 3D biomaterial microarrays can, if optimized correctly, result in a more than 1000-fold reduction in biomaterials and cells consumption when engineering optimal materials combinations, which makes these miniaturized systems very attractive...

  10. Genome-wide prediction and analysis of human tissue-selective genes using microarray expression data

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Teng Shaolei

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Understanding how genes are expressed specifically in particular tissues is a fundamental question in developmental biology. Many tissue-specific genes are involved in the pathogenesis of complex human diseases. However, experimental identification of tissue-specific genes is time consuming and difficult. The accurate predictions of tissue-specific gene targets could provide useful information for biomarker development and drug target identification. Results In this study, we have developed a machine learning approach for predicting the human tissue-specific genes using microarray expression data. The lists of known tissue-specific genes for different tissues were collected from UniProt database, and the expression data retrieved from the previously compiled dataset according to the lists were used for input vector encoding. Random Forests (RFs and Support Vector Machines (SVMs were used to construct accurate classifiers. The RF classifiers were found to outperform SVM models for tissue-specific gene prediction. The results suggest that the candidate genes for brain or liver specific expression can provide valuable information for further experimental studies. Our approach was also applied for identifying tissue-selective gene targets for different types of tissues. Conclusions A machine learning approach has been developed for accurately identifying the candidate genes for tissue specific/selective expression. The approach provides an efficient way to select some interesting genes for developing new biomedical markers and improve our knowledge of tissue-specific expression.

  11. Speckle-type POZ (pox virus and zinc finger protein) protein gene deletion in ovarian cancer: Fluorescence in situ hybridization analysis of a tissue microarray.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hu, Xiaoyu; Yang, Zhu; Zeng, Manman; Liu, Y I; Yang, Xiaotao; Li, Yanan; Li, X U; Yu, Qiubo

    2016-07-01

    The aim of the present study was to investigate the status of speckle-type POZ (pox virus and zinc finger protein) protein (SPOP) gene located on chromosome 17q21 in ovarian cancer (OC). The present study evaluated a tissue microarray, which contained 90 samples of ovarian cancer and 10 samples of normal ovarian tissue, using fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH). FISH is a method where a SPOP-specific DNA red fluorescence probe was used for the experimental group and a centromere-specific DNA green fluorescence probe for chromosome 17 was used for the control group. The present study demonstrated that a deletion of the SPOP gene was observed in 52.27% (46/88) of the ovarian cancer tissues, but was not identified in normal ovarian tissues. Simultaneously, monosomy 17 was frequently identified in the ovarian cancer tissues, but not in the normal ovarian tissues. Furthermore, the present data revealed that the ovarian cancer histological subtype and grade were significantly associated with a deletion of the SPOP gene, which was assessed by the appearance of monosomy 17 in the ovarian cancer samples; the deletion of the SPOP gene was observed in a large proportion of serous epithelial ovarian cancer (41/61; 67.21%), particularly in grade 3 (31/37; 83.78%). In conclusion, deletion of the SPOP gene on chromosome 17 in ovarian cancer samples, which results from monosomy 17, indicates that the SPOP gene may serve as a tumor suppressor gene in ovarian cancer.

  12. Development and validation of a flax (Linum usitatissimum L.) gene expression oligo microarray.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fenart, Stéphane; Ndong, Yves-Placide Assoumou; Duarte, Jorge; Rivière, Nathalie; Wilmer, Jeroen; van Wuytswinkel, Olivier; Lucau, Anca; Cariou, Emmanuelle; Neutelings, Godfrey; Gutierrez, Laurent; Chabbert, Brigitte; Guillot, Xavier; Tavernier, Reynald; Hawkins, Simon; Thomasset, Brigitte

    2010-10-21

    Flax (Linum usitatissimum L.) has been cultivated for around 9,000 years and is therefore one of the oldest cultivated species. Today, flax is still grown for its oil (oil-flax or linseed cultivars) and its cellulose-rich fibres (fibre-flax cultivars) used for high-value linen garments and composite materials. Despite the wide industrial use of flax-derived products, and our actual understanding of the regulation of both wood fibre production and oil biosynthesis more information must be acquired in both domains. Recent advances in genomics are now providing opportunities to improve our fundamental knowledge of these complex processes. In this paper we report the development and validation of a high-density oligo microarray platform dedicated to gene expression analyses in flax. Nine different RNA samples obtained from flax inner- and outer-stems, seeds, leaves and roots were used to generate a collection of 1,066,481 ESTs by massive parallel pyrosequencing. Sequences were assembled into 59,626 unigenes and 48,021 sequences were selected for oligo design and high-density microarray (Nimblegen 385K) fabrication with eight, non-overlapping 25-mers oligos per unigene. 18 independent experiments were used to evaluate the hybridization quality, precision, specificity and accuracy and all results confirmed the high technical quality of our microarray platform. Cross-validation of microarray data was carried out using quantitative qRT-PCR. Nine target genes were selected on the basis of microarray results and reflected the whole range of fold change (both up-regulated and down-regulated genes in different samples). A statistically significant positive correlation was obtained comparing expression levels for each target gene across all biological replicates both in qRT-PCR and microarray results. Further experiments illustrated the capacity of our arrays to detect differential gene expression in a variety of flax tissues as well as between two contrasted flax varieties

  13. Development and validation of a flax (Linum usitatissimum L. gene expression oligo microarray

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gutierrez Laurent

    2010-10-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Flax (Linum usitatissimum L. has been cultivated for around 9,000 years and is therefore one of the oldest cultivated species. Today, flax is still grown for its oil (oil-flax or linseed cultivars and its cellulose-rich fibres (fibre-flax cultivars used for high-value linen garments and composite materials. Despite the wide industrial use of flax-derived products, and our actual understanding of the regulation of both wood fibre production and oil biosynthesis more information must be acquired in both domains. Recent advances in genomics are now providing opportunities to improve our fundamental knowledge of these complex processes. In this paper we report the development and validation of a high-density oligo microarray platform dedicated to gene expression analyses in flax. Results Nine different RNA samples obtained from flax inner- and outer-stems, seeds, leaves and roots were used to generate a collection of 1,066,481 ESTs by massive parallel pyrosequencing. Sequences were assembled into 59,626 unigenes and 48,021 sequences were selected for oligo design and high-density microarray (Nimblegen 385K fabrication with eight, non-overlapping 25-mers oligos per unigene. 18 independent experiments were used to evaluate the hybridization quality, precision, specificity and accuracy and all results confirmed the high technical quality of our microarray platform. Cross-validation of microarray data was carried out using quantitative qRT-PCR. Nine target genes were selected on the basis of microarray results and reflected the whole range of fold change (both up-regulated and down-regulated genes in different samples. A statistically significant positive correlation was obtained comparing expression levels for each target gene across all biological replicates both in qRT-PCR and microarray results. Further experiments illustrated the capacity of our arrays to detect differential gene expression in a variety of flax tissues as well

  14. A regression-based differential expression detection algorithm for microarray studies with ultra-low sample size.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Daniel Vasiliu

    Full Text Available Global gene expression analysis using microarrays and, more recently, RNA-seq, has allowed investigators to understand biological processes at a system level. However, the identification of differentially expressed genes in experiments with small sample size, high dimensionality, and high variance remains challenging, limiting the usability of these tens of thousands of publicly available, and possibly many more unpublished, gene expression datasets. We propose a novel variable selection algorithm for ultra-low-n microarray studies using generalized linear model-based variable selection with a penalized binomial regression algorithm called penalized Euclidean distance (PED. Our method uses PED to build a classifier on the experimental data to rank genes by importance. In place of cross-validation, which is required by most similar methods but not reliable for experiments with small sample size, we use a simulation-based approach to additively build a list of differentially expressed genes from the rank-ordered list. Our simulation-based approach maintains a low false discovery rate while maximizing the number of differentially expressed genes identified, a feature critical for downstream pathway analysis. We apply our method to microarray data from an experiment perturbing the Notch signaling pathway in Xenopus laevis embryos. This dataset was chosen because it showed very little differential expression according to limma, a powerful and widely-used method for microarray analysis. Our method was able to detect a significant number of differentially expressed genes in this dataset and suggest future directions for investigation. Our method is easily adaptable for analysis of data from RNA-seq and other global expression experiments with low sample size and high dimensionality.

  15. Transcriptome sequencing of the Microarray Quality Control (MAQC RNA reference samples using next generation sequencing

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Thierry-Mieg Danielle

    2009-06-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Transcriptome sequencing using next-generation sequencing platforms will soon be competing with DNA microarray technologies for global gene expression analysis. As a preliminary evaluation of these promising technologies, we performed deep sequencing of cDNA synthesized from the Microarray Quality Control (MAQC reference RNA samples using Roche's 454 Genome Sequencer FLX. Results We generated more that 3.6 million sequence reads of average length 250 bp for the MAQC A and B samples and introduced a data analysis pipeline for translating cDNA read counts into gene expression levels. Using BLAST, 90% of the reads mapped to the human genome and 64% of the reads mapped to the RefSeq database of well annotated genes with e-values ≤ 10-20. We measured gene expression levels in the A and B samples by counting the numbers of reads that mapped to individual RefSeq genes in multiple sequencing runs to evaluate the MAQC quality metrics for reproducibility, sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy and compared the results with DNA microarrays and Quantitative RT-PCR (QRTPCR from the MAQC studies. In addition, 88% of the reads were successfully aligned directly to the human genome using the AceView alignment programs with an average 90% sequence similarity to identify 137,899 unique exon junctions, including 22,193 new exon junctions not yet contained in the RefSeq database. Conclusion Using the MAQC metrics for evaluating the performance of gene expression platforms, the ExpressSeq results for gene expression levels showed excellent reproducibility, sensitivity, and specificity that improved systematically with increasing shotgun sequencing depth, and quantitative accuracy that was comparable to DNA microarrays and QRTPCR. In addition, a careful mapping of the reads to the genome using the AceView alignment programs shed new light on the complexity of the human transcriptome including the discovery of thousands of new splice variants.

  16. Recommendations for the use of microarrays in prenatal diagnosis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Suela, Javier; López-Expósito, Isabel; Querejeta, María Eugenia; Martorell, Rosa; Cuatrecasas, Esther; Armengol, Lluis; Antolín, Eugenia; Domínguez Garrido, Elena; Trujillo-Tiebas, María José; Rosell, Jordi; García Planells, Javier; Cigudosa, Juan Cruz

    2017-04-07

    Microarray technology, recently implemented in international prenatal diagnosis systems, has become one of the main techniques in this field in terms of detection rate and objectivity of the results. This guideline attempts to provide background information on this technology, including technical and diagnostic aspects to be considered. Specifically, this guideline defines: the different prenatal sample types to be used, as well as their characteristics (chorionic villi samples, amniotic fluid, fetal cord blood or miscarriage tissue material); variant reporting policies (including variants of uncertain significance) to be considered in informed consents and prenatal microarray reports; microarray limitations inherent to the technique and which must be taken into account when recommending microarray testing for diagnosis; a detailed clinical algorithm recommending the use of microarray testing and its introduction into routine clinical practice within the context of other genetic tests, including pregnancies in families with a genetic history or specific syndrome suspicion, first trimester increased nuchal translucency or second trimester heart malformation and ultrasound findings not related to a known or specific syndrome. This guideline has been coordinated by the Spanish Association for Prenatal Diagnosis (AEDP, «Asociación Española de Diagnóstico Prenatal»), the Spanish Human Genetics Association (AEGH, «Asociación Española de Genética Humana») and the Spanish Society of Clinical Genetics and Dysmorphology (SEGCyD, «Sociedad Española de Genética Clínica y Dismorfología»). Copyright © 2017 Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.

  17. A panel of prognostic protein markers for progression in non-muscle invasive bladder cancer - a multicenter tissue microarray validation study

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Fristrup, Niels; Birkenkamp-Demtröder, Karin; Ulhøi, Benedicte Parm

    2012-01-01

    cohort of 283 patients with long-term follow-up. For validation of the results we used three independent patient cohorts with long-term follow-up from Sweden, Spain, and Taiwan. In total 649 primary NMIBC tissue-microarray specimens from patients with long-term follow-up were used. Protein expression......Bladder cancer is the fifth most common cancer in the Western world. The histopathological parameters used in the clinic cannot precisely predict the individual disease course. Bladder cancer patients are therefore monitored thoroughly for disease recurrence and progression by urine and cystoscopy...... Ta and T1 urothelial carcinomas. Transcripts from the five genes encoding these proteins were previously included in gene expression signatures for outcome prediction for non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC). As a training-set, we used primary NMIBC tissue-microarray specimens from a Danish...

  18. Radioactive cDNA microarray in neurospsychiatry

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Choe, Jae Gol; Shin, Kyung Ho; Lee, Min Soo; Kim, Meyoung Kon

    2003-01-01

    Microarray technology allows the simultaneous analysis of gene expression patterns of thousands of genes, in a systematic fashion, under a similar set of experimental conditions, thus making the data highly comparable. In some cases arrays are used simply as a primary screen leading to downstream molecular characterization of individual gene candidates. In other cases, the goal of expression profiling is to begin to identify complex regulatory networks underlying developmental processes and disease states. Microarrays were originally used with cell lines or other simple model systems. More recently, microarrays have been used in the analysis of more complex biological tissues including neural systems and the brain. The application of cDNA arrays in neuropsychiatry has lagged behind other fields for a number of reasons. These include a requirement for a large amount of input probe RNA in fluorescent-glass based array systems and the cellular complexity introduced by multicellular brain and neural tissues. An additional factor that impacts the general use of microarrays in neuropsychiatry is the lack of availability of sequenced clone sets from model systems. While human cDNA clones have been widely available, high quality rat, mouse, and drosophilae, among others are just becoming widely available. A final factor in the application of cDNA microarrays in neuropsychiatry is cost of commercial arrays. As academic microarray facilitates become more commonplace custom made arrays will become more widely available at a lower cost allowing more widespread applications. In summary, microarray technology is rapidly having an impact on many areas of biomedical research. Radioisotope-nylon based microarrays offer alternatives that may in some cases be more sensitive, flexible, inexpensive, and universal as compared to other array formats, such as fluorescent-glass arrays. In some situations of limited RNA or exotic species, radioactive membrane microarrays may be the most

  19. Radioactive cDNA microarray in neurospsychiatry

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Choe, Jae Gol; Shin, Kyung Ho; Lee, Min Soo; Kim, Meyoung Kon [Korea University Medical School, Seoul (Korea, Republic of)

    2003-02-01

    Microarray technology allows the simultaneous analysis of gene expression patterns of thousands of genes, in a systematic fashion, under a similar set of experimental conditions, thus making the data highly comparable. In some cases arrays are used simply as a primary screen leading to downstream molecular characterization of individual gene candidates. In other cases, the goal of expression profiling is to begin to identify complex regulatory networks underlying developmental processes and disease states. Microarrays were originally used with cell lines or other simple model systems. More recently, microarrays have been used in the analysis of more complex biological tissues including neural systems and the brain. The application of cDNA arrays in neuropsychiatry has lagged behind other fields for a number of reasons. These include a requirement for a large amount of input probe RNA in fluorescent-glass based array systems and the cellular complexity introduced by multicellular brain and neural tissues. An additional factor that impacts the general use of microarrays in neuropsychiatry is the lack of availability of sequenced clone sets from model systems. While human cDNA clones have been widely available, high quality rat, mouse, and drosophilae, among others are just becoming widely available. A final factor in the application of cDNA microarrays in neuropsychiatry is cost of commercial arrays. As academic microarray facilitates become more commonplace custom made arrays will become more widely available at a lower cost allowing more widespread applications. In summary, microarray technology is rapidly having an impact on many areas of biomedical research. Radioisotope-nylon based microarrays offer alternatives that may in some cases be more sensitive, flexible, inexpensive, and universal as compared to other array formats, such as fluorescent-glass arrays. In some situations of limited RNA or exotic species, radioactive membrane microarrays may be the most

  20. Microarray analysis of subcutaneous adipose tissue from mature cows with divergent body weight gain after feed restriction and realimentation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    H.C. Cunningham

    2018-02-01

    Full Text Available Body weight response to periods of feed restriction and realimentation is critical and relevant to the agricultural industry. The purpose of this study was to evaluate differentially expressed genes identified in subcutaneous adipose tissue collected from cows divergent in body weight (BW gain after feed restriction and realimentation. We compared adipose samples from cows with greater gain based on average daily gain (ADG during realimentation with samples from cows with lesser gain. Specifically, there were four comparisons including two comparing the high and low gain animals across each feeding period (feed restriction and realimentation and two that compared differences in feed restriction and realimentation across high or low gain classifications. Using microarray analysis, we provide a set of differentially expressed genes identified between the high and low gain at both periods of nutrient restriction and realimentation. These data identify multiple differentially expressed genes between these two phenotypes across both nutritional environments. Keywords: Beef cows, Subcutaneous fat, Transcriptome

  1. eSensor: an electrochemical detection-based DNA microarray technology enabling sample-to-answer molecular diagnostics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Robin H.; Longiaru, Mathew

    2009-05-01

    DNA microarrays are becoming a widespread tool used in life science and drug screening due to its many benefits of miniaturization and integration. Microarrays permit a highly multiplexed DNA analysis. Recently, the development of new detection methods and simplified methodologies has rapidly expanded the use of microarray technologies from predominantly gene expression analysis into the arena of diagnostics. Osmetech's eSensor® is an electrochemical detection platform based on a low-to- medium density DNA hybridization array on a cost-effective printed circuit board substrate. eSensor® has been cleared by FDA for Warfarin sensitivity test and Cystic Fibrosis Carrier Detection. Other genetic-based diagnostic and infectious disease detection tests are under development. The eSensor® platform eliminates the need for an expensive laser-based optical system and fluorescent reagents. It allows one to perform hybridization and detection in a single and small instrument without any fluidic processing and handling. Furthermore, the eSensor® platform is readily adaptable to on-chip sample-to-answer genetic analyses using microfluidics technology. The eSensor® platform provides a cost-effective solution to direct sample-to-answer genetic analysis, and thus have a potential impact in the fields of point-of-care genetic analysis, environmental testing, and biological warfare agent detection.

  2. Tissue Microarray Assessment of Novel Prostate Cancer Biomarkers AMACR and EZH2 and Immunologic Response to Them in African-American and Caucasian Men

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Mehra, Rohit

    2007-01-01

    .... We constructed 5 tissue microarrays representing 40 African-American and 159 Caucasian prostate cancer patients and performed immunohistochemistry on these arrays using antibody to AMACR and EZH2...

  3. Tissue Microarray Assessment of Novel Prostate Cancer Biomarkers AMACR and EZH2 and Immunologic Response to them in African-American and Caucasian Men

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Mehra, Rohit

    2006-01-01

    .... We constructed 5 tissue microarrays representing 40 African-American and 159 Caucasian prostate cancer patients and performed immunohistochemistry on these arrays using antibodies to AMACR and EZH2...

  4. Differentiation of the seven major lyssavirus species by oligonucleotide microarray.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xi, Jin; Guo, Huancheng; Feng, Ye; Xu, Yunbin; Shao, Mingfu; Su, Nan; Wan, Jiayu; Li, Jiping; Tu, Changchun

    2012-03-01

    An oligonucleotide microarray, LyssaChip, has been developed and verified as a highly specific diagnostic tool for differentiation of the 7 major lyssavirus species. As with conventional typing microarray methods, the LyssaChip relies on sequence differences in the 371-nucleotide region coding for the nucleoprotein. This region was amplified using nested reverse transcription-PCR primers that bind to the 7 major lyssaviruses. The LyssaChip includes 57 pairs of species typing and corresponding control oligonucleotide probes (oligoprobes) immobilized on glass slides, and it can analyze 12 samples on a single slide within 8 h. Analysis of 111 clinical brain specimens (65 from animals with suspected rabies submitted to the laboratory and 46 of butchered dog brain tissues collected from restaurants) showed that the chip method was 100% sensitive and highly consistent with the "gold standard," a fluorescent antibody test (FAT). The chip method could detect rabies virus in highly decayed brain tissues, whereas the FAT did not, and therefore the chip test may be more applicable to highly decayed brain tissues than the FAT. LyssaChip may provide a convenient and inexpensive alternative for diagnosis and differentiation of rabies and rabies-related diseases.

  5. Identification of New Players in Hepatocarcinogenesis: Limits and Opportunities of Using Tissue Microarray (TMA

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Luca Quagliata

    2014-04-01

    Full Text Available Liver tumours are among the leading causes of cancer-related death worldwide and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC accounts for the vast majority of liver tumours. When detected at an early stage of disease, patients might still be eligible for surgical-based curative treatments. However, currently only small portion of HCC affected patients are diagnosed at an early stage. For late stage HCC no treatment option exists beside the multi-tyrosine kinase inhibitor Sorafenib. Thus new molecular targets and treatment options for HCC are urgently needed. Nevertheless, despite some improvements in diagnosis and patient management, the biology of liver tumour remains inadequately understood, mainly because these tumours have shown to harbour a highly complex genomic landscape. In addition, one major obstacle delaying the identification of new molecular targets in biomedical research is the necessity to validate them using a large collection of tissue specimens. Tissue microarray (TMA technology allows the prompt molecular profiling of multiple tissue specimens and is therefore ideal to analyze presumptive candidate biomarkers in a fast an effective manner. The use of TMA has substantial benefits over standard techniques and represents a significant advancement in molecular pathology. For example, TMA technology reduces laboratory work, offers a high level of experimental uniformity and provides a judicious use of precious tissue. On the other hand, one potential limitation of using TMA is that the small cores sampled may not be representative of whole tumors. This issue is very critical in particularly heterogeneous cancers such as HCC. For liver focused studies, it is ideal to evaluate the staining patters of a determined marker over the structure of an entire acinus and to define staining in as many as possible anatomical regions. In this review we analyze the limits and opportunities offered by the usage of TMA technology in HCC research. In summary, TMA

  6. Identification of New Players in Hepatocarcinogenesis: Limits and Opportunities of Using Tissue Microarray (TMA).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Quagliata, Luca; Schlageter, Manuel; Quintavalle, Cristina; Tornillo, Luigi; Terracciano, Luigi M

    2014-04-15

    Liver tumours are among the leading causes of cancer-related death worldwide and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) accounts for the vast majority of liver tumours. When detected at an early stage of disease, patients might still be eligible for surgical-based curative treatments. However, currently only small portion of HCC affected patients are diagnosed at an early stage. For late stage HCC no treatment option exists beside the multi-tyrosine kinase inhibitor Sorafenib. Thus new molecular targets and treatment options for HCC are urgently needed. Nevertheless, despite some improvements in diagnosis and patient management, the biology of liver tumour remains inadequately understood, mainly because these tumours have shown to harbour a highly complex genomic landscape. In addition, one major obstacle delaying the identification of new molecular targets in biomedical research is the necessity to validate them using a large collection of tissue specimens. Tissue microarray (TMA) technology allows the prompt molecular profiling of multiple tissue specimens and is therefore ideal to analyze presumptive candidate biomarkers in a fast an effective manner. The use of TMA has substantial benefits over standard techniques and represents a significant advancement in molecular pathology. For example, TMA technology reduces laboratory work, offers a high level of experimental uniformity and provides a judicious use of precious tissue. On the other hand, one potential limitation of using TMA is that the small cores sampled may not be representative of whole tumors. This issue is very critical in particularly heterogeneous cancers such as HCC. For liver focused studies, it is ideal to evaluate the staining patters of a determined marker over the structure of an entire acinus and to define staining in as many as possible anatomical regions. In this review we analyze the limits and opportunities offered by the usage of TMA technology in HCC research. In summary, TMA has

  7. Cross-species hybridization of woodchuck hepatitis virus-induced hepatocellular carcinoma using human oligonucleotide microarrays

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    Paul W Anderson; Bud C Tennant; Zhenghong Lee

    2006-01-01

    AIM: To demonstrate the feasibility of using woodchuck samples on human microarrays, to provide insight into pathways involving positron emission tomography (PET) imaging tracers and to identify genes that could be potential molecular imaging targets for woodchuck hepatocellular carcinoma.METHODS: Labeled cRNA from woodchuck tissue samples were hybridized to Affymetrix U133 plus 2.0 GeneChips(R). Ten genes were selected for validation using quantitative RT-PCR and literature review was made.RESULTS: Testis enhanced gene transcript (BAX Inhibitor 1), alpha-fetoprotein, isocitrate dehydrogenase 3 (NAD+) beta, acetyl-CoA synthetase 2, carnitine palmitoyltransferase 2, and N-myc2 were up-regulated and spermidine/spermine N1-acetyltransferase was down-regulated in the woodchuck HCC. We also found previously published results supporting 8 of the 10 most up-regulated genes and all 10 of the 10 most downregulated genes.CONCLUSION: Many of our microarray results were validated using RT-PCR or literature search. Hence, we believe that woodchuck HCC and non-cancerous liver samples can be used on human microarrays to yield meaningful results.

  8. Prognostic value of matrix metalloproteinase 9 expression in patients with juvenile nasopharyngeal angiofibroma: tissue microarray analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sun, Xicai; Guo, Limin; Wang, Jingjing; Wang, Huan; Liu, Zhuofu; Liu, Juan; Yu, Huapeng; Hu, Li; Li, Han; Wang, Dehui

    2014-08-01

    Although JNA is a benign neoplasm histopathologically, it has a propensity for locally destructive growth and remains a higher postoperative recurrence rate. The aim of this study was to analyze the expression and localization of MMP-9 in JNA using tissue microarray to elucidate its correlation with clinicopathological features and recurrence. The expression of MMP-9 was assessed by immunohistochemistry in a tissue microarray from 70 patients with JNA and 10 control subjects. Correlation between the levels of MMP-9 expression and clinicopathologic variables, as well as tumor recurrence, were analyzed. MMP-9 was detected in perivascular and extravascular less differentiated cells and stromal cells of patients with JNA but not in the matured vascular endothelial cells of these patients. The presence of MMP-9 expression in JNA was correlated with patient's age (p=0.001). Spearman correlation analysis suggested that high expression of MMP-9 in JNA had negative correlation with patient's age (r=-0.412, p<0.001). The recurrence rate in JNA patients with high MMP-9 expression was significantly higher than those with low MMP-9 expression (p=0.002). In multivariate and ROC curve analysis, MMP-9 was a good prognostic factor for tumor recurrence of JNA. Higher MMP-9 expression is a poor prognostic factor for patients with JNA who have been surgically treated. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

  9. Fluorescent microarray for multiplexed quantification of environmental contaminants in seawater samples

    Science.gov (United States)

    The development of a fluorescent multiplexed microarray platform able to detect and quantify a wide variety of pollutants in seawater is reported. The microarray platform has been manufactured by spotting 6 different bioconjugate competitors and it uses a cocktail of 6 monoclonal and polyclonal anti...

  10. Protein microarray: sensitive and effective immunodetection for drug residues

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zer Cindy

    2010-02-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Veterinary drugs such as clenbuterol (CL and sulfamethazine (SM2 are low molecular weight ( Results The artificial antigens were spotted on microarray slides. Standard concentrations of the compounds were added to compete with the spotted antigens for binding to the antisera to determine the IC50. Our microarray assay showed the IC50 were 39.6 ng/ml for CL and 48.8 ng/ml for SM2, while the traditional competitive indirect-ELISA (ci-ELISA showed the IC50 were 190.7 ng/ml for CL and 156.7 ng/ml for SM2. We further validated the two methods with CL fortified chicken muscle tissues, and the protein microarray assay showed 90% recovery while the ci-ELISA had 76% recovery rate. When tested with CL-fed chicken muscle tissues, the protein microarray assay had higher sensitivity (0.9 ng/g than the ci-ELISA (0.1 ng/g for detection of CL residues. Conclusions The protein microarrays showed 4.5 and 3.5 times lower IC50 than the ci-ELISA detection for CL and SM2, respectively, suggesting that immunodetection of small molecules with protein microarray is a better approach than the traditional ELISA technique.

  11. Expression of the G protein-coupled estrogen receptor (GPER in endometriosis: a tissue microarray study

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Samartzis Nicolas

    2012-04-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background The G protein-coupled estrogen receptor (GPER is thought to be involved in non-genomic estrogen responses as well as processes such as cell proliferation and migration. In this study, we analyzed GPER expression patterns from endometriosis samples and normal endometrial tissue samples and compared these expression profiles to those of the classical sex hormone receptors. Methods A tissue microarray, which included 74 samples from different types of endometriosis (27 ovarian, 19 peritoneal and 28 deep-infiltrating and 30 samples from normal endometrial tissue, was used to compare the expression levels of the GPER, estrogen receptor (ER-alpha, ER-beta and progesterone receptor (PR. The immunoreactive score (IRS was calculated separately for epithelium and stroma as the product of the staining intensity and the percentage of positive cells. The expression levels of the hormonal receptors were dichotomized into low (IRS  =6 expression groups. Results The mean epithelial IRS (+/−standard deviation, range of cytoplasmic GPER expression was 1.2 (+/−1.7, 0–4 in normal endometrium and 5.1 (+/−3.5, 0–12 in endometriosis (p p = 0.71, of ER-alpha 10.6 (+/−2.4, 3–12 and 9.8 (+/−3.0, 2–12; p = 0.26, of ER-beta 2.4 (+/−2.2; 0–8 and 5.6 (+/−2.6; 0–10; p p p p = 0.001, of ER-beta 1.8 (+/−2.0; 0–8 and 5.4 (+/−2.5; 0–10; p p���= 0.044, respectively. Cytoplasmic GPER expression was not detectable in the stroma of endometrium and endometriosis. The observed frequency of high epithelial cytoplasmic GPER expression levels was 50% (n = 30/60 in the endometriosis and none (0/30 in the normal endometrium samples (p p = 0.01, as compared to peritoneal (9/18, 50% or deep-infiltrating endometriotic lesions (7/22, 31.8%. The frequency of high stromal nuclear GPER expression levels was 100% (n = 74/74 in endometriosis and 76.7% (n = 23/30 in normal endometrium (p

  12. Production of tissue microarrays, immunohistochemistry staining and digitalization within the human protein atlas.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kampf, Caroline; Olsson, Ingmarie; Ryberg, Urban; Sjöstedt, Evelina; Pontén, Fredrik

    2012-05-31

    The tissue microarray (TMA) technology provides the means for high-throughput analysis of multiple tissues and cells. The technique is used within the Human Protein Atlas project for global analysis of protein expression patterns in normal human tissues, cancer and cell lines. Here we present the assembly of 1 mm cores, retrieved from microscopically selected representative tissues, into a single recipient TMA block. The number and size of cores in a TMA block can be varied from approximately forty 2 mm cores to hundreds of 0.6 mm cores. The advantage of using TMA technology is that large amount of data can rapidly be obtained using a single immunostaining protocol to avoid experimental variability. Importantly, only limited amount of scarce tissue is needed, which allows for the analysis of large patient cohorts (1 2). Approximately 250 consecutive sections (4 μm thick) can be cut from a TMA block and used for immunohistochemical staining to determine specific protein expression patterns for 250 different antibodies. In the Human Protein Atlas project, antibodies are generated towards all human proteins and used to acquire corresponding protein profiles in both normal human tissues from 144 individuals and cancer tissues from 216 different patients, representing the 20 most common forms of human cancer. Immunohistochemically stained TMA sections on glass slides are scanned to create high-resolution images from which pathologists can interpret and annotate the outcome of immunohistochemistry. Images together with corresponding pathology-based annotation data are made publically available for the research community through the Human Protein Atlas portal (www.proteinatlas.org) (Figure 1) (3 4). The Human Protein Atlas provides a map showing the distribution and relative abundance of proteins in the human body. The current version contains over 11 million images with protein expression data for 12.238 unique proteins, corresponding to more than 61% of all proteins

  13. p16 as a diagnostic marker of cervical neoplasia: a tissue microarray study of 796 archival specimens

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Lesnikova, Iana; Lidang, Marianne; Hamilton-Dutoit, Stephen

    2009-01-01

    from archival formalin fixed, paraffin-embedded donor tissues from 796 patients, and included cases of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN)1 (n = 249), CIN2 (n = 233), CIN3 (n = 181), and invasive cervical carcinoma (n = 133). p16INK4a expression was scored using two different protocols: 1......BACKGROUND: To evaluate the usefulness of this biomarker in the diagnosis of cases of cervical neoplasia we studied the immunohistochemical expression of p16INK4a in a large series of archival cervical biopsies arranged into tissue microarray format. METHODS: TMAs were constructed with tissue cores...... dysplasia or the presence of invasive carcinoma. CONCLUSION: Immunohistochemical analysis of p16INK4a expression is a useful diagnostic tool. Expression is related to the degree of histological dysplasia, suggesting that it may have prognostic and predicative value in the management of cervical neoplasia....

  14. The tissue microarray data exchange specification: A document type definition to validate and enhance XML data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nohle, David G; Ayers, Leona W

    2005-01-01

    Background The Association for Pathology Informatics (API) Extensible Mark-up Language (XML) TMA Data Exchange Specification (TMA DES) proposed in April 2003 provides a community-based, open source tool for sharing tissue microarray (TMA) data in a common format. Each tissue core within an array has separate data including digital images; therefore an organized, common approach to produce, navigate and publish such data facilitates viewing, sharing and merging TMA data from different laboratories. The AIDS and Cancer Specimen Resource (ACSR) is a HIV/AIDS tissue bank consortium sponsored by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Division of Cancer Treatment and Diagnosis (DCTD). The ACSR offers HIV-related malignancies and uninfected control tissues in microarrays (TMA) accompanied by de-identified clinical data to approved researchers. Exporting our TMA data into the proposed API specified format offers an opportunity to evaluate the API specification in an applied setting and to explore its usefulness. Results A document type definition (DTD) that governs the allowed common data elements (CDE) in TMA DES export XML files was written, tested and evolved and is in routine use by the ACSR. This DTD defines TMA DES CDEs which are implemented in an external file that can be supplemented by internal DTD extensions for locally defined TMA data elements (LDE). Conclusion ACSR implementation of the TMA DES demonstrated the utility of the specification and allowed application of a DTD to validate the language of the API specified XML elements and to identify possible enhancements within our TMA data management application. Improvements to the specification have additionally been suggested by our experience in importing other institution's exported TMA data. Enhancements to TMA DES to remove ambiguous situations and clarify the data should be considered. Better specified identifiers and hierarchical relationships will make automatic use of the data possible. Our tool can be

  15. [Transciptome among Mexicans: a large scale methodology to analyze the genetics expression profile of simultaneous samples in muscle, adipose tissue and lymphocytes obtained from the same individual].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bastarrachea, Raúl A; López-Alvarenga, Juan Carlos; Kent, Jack W; Laviada-Molina, Hugo A; Cerda-Flores, Ricardo M; Calderón-Garcidueñas, Ana Laura; Torres-Salazar, Amada; Torres-Salazar, Amanda; Nava-González, Edna J; Solis-Pérez, Elizabeth; Gallegos-Cabrales, Esther C; Cole, Shelley A; Comuzzie, Anthony G

    2008-01-01

    We describe the methodology used to analyze multiple transcripts using microarray techniques in simultaneous biopsies of muscle, adipose tissue and lymphocytes obtained from the same individual as part of the standard protocol of the Genetics of Metabolic Diseases in Mexico: GEMM Family Study. We recruited 4 healthy male subjects with BM1 20-41, who signed an informed consent letter. Subjects participated in a clinical examination that included anthropometric and body composition measurements, muscle biopsies (vastus lateralis) subcutaneous fat biopsies anda blood draw. All samples provided sufficient amplified RNA for microarray analysis. Total RNA was extracted from the biopsy samples and amplified for analysis. Of the 48,687 transcript targets queried, 39.4% were detectable in a least one of the studied tissues. Leptin was not detectable in lymphocytes, weakly expressed in muscle, but overexpressed and highly correlated with BMI in subcutaneous fat. Another example was GLUT4, which was detectable only in muscle and not correlated with BMI. Expression level concordance was 0.7 (p< 0.001) for the three tissues studied. We demonstrated the feasibility of carrying out simultaneous analysis of gene expression in multiple tissues, concordance of genetic expression in different tissues, and obtained confidence that this method corroborates the expected biological relationships among LEPand GLUT4. TheGEMM study will provide a broad and valuable overview on metabolic diseases, including obesity and type 2 diabetes.

  16. The tissue micro-array data exchange specification: a web based experience browsing imported data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nohle, David G; Hackman, Barbara A; Ayers, Leona W

    2005-01-01

    Background The AIDS and Cancer Specimen Resource (ACSR) is an HIV/AIDS tissue bank consortium sponsored by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Division of Cancer Treatment and Diagnosis (DCTD). The ACSR offers to approved researchers HIV infected biologic samples and uninfected control tissues including tissue cores in micro-arrays (TMA) accompanied by de-identified clinical data. Researchers interested in the type and quality of TMA tissue cores and the associated clinical data need an efficient method for viewing available TMA materials. Because each of the tissue samples within a TMA has separate data including a core tissue digital image and clinical data, an organized, standard approach to producing, navigating and publishing such data is necessary. The Association for Pathology Informatics (API) extensible mark-up language (XML) TMA data exchange specification (TMA DES) proposed in April 2003 provides a common format for TMA data. Exporting TMA data into the proposed format offers an opportunity to implement the API TMA DES. Using our public BrowseTMA tool, we created a web site that organizes and cross references TMA lists, digital "virtual slide" images, TMA DES export data, linked legends and clinical details for researchers. Microsoft Excel® and Microsoft Word® are used to convert tabular clinical data and produce an XML file in the TMA DES format. The BrowseTMA tool contains Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformation (XSLT) scripts that convert XML data into Hyper-Text Mark-up Language (HTML) web pages with hyperlinks automatically added to allow rapid navigation. Results Block lists, virtual slide images, legends, clinical details and exports have been placed on the ACSR web site for 14 blocks with 1623 cores of 2.0, 1.0 and 0.6 mm sizes. Our virtual microscope can be used to view and annotate these TMA images. Researchers can readily navigate from TMA block lists to TMA legends and to clinical details for a selected tissue core. Exports for 11

  17. A two-sample Bayesian t-test for microarray data

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dimmic Matthew W

    2006-03-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Determining whether a gene is differentially expressed in two different samples remains an important statistical problem. Prior work in this area has featured the use of t-tests with pooled estimates of the sample variance based on similarly expressed genes. These methods do not display consistent behavior across the entire range of pooling and can be biased when the prior hyperparameters are specified heuristically. Results A two-sample Bayesian t-test is proposed for use in determining whether a gene is differentially expressed in two different samples. The test method is an extension of earlier work that made use of point estimates for the variance. The method proposed here explicitly calculates in analytic form the marginal distribution for the difference in the mean expression of two samples, obviating the need for point estimates of the variance without recourse to posterior simulation. The prior distribution involves a single hyperparameter that can be calculated in a statistically rigorous manner, making clear the connection between the prior degrees of freedom and prior variance. Conclusion The test is easy to understand and implement and application to both real and simulated data shows that the method has equal or greater power compared to the previous method and demonstrates consistent Type I error rates. The test is generally applicable outside the microarray field to any situation where prior information about the variance is available and is not limited to cases where estimates of the variance are based on many similar observations.

  18. Hormonal receptors and vascular endothelial growth factor in juvenile nasopharyngeal angiofibroma: immunohistochemical and tissue microarray analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Zhuofu; Wang, Jingjing; Wang, Huan; Wang, Dehui; Hu, Li; Liu, Quan; Sun, Xicai

    2015-01-01

    This work demonstrated that juvenile nasopharyngeal angiofibromas (JNAs) express high levels of hormone receptors and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) compared with normal nasal mucosa. The interaction between hormone receptors and VEGF may be involved in the initiation and growth of JNA. JNA is a rare benign tumor that occurs almost exclusively in male adolescents. Although generally regarded as a hormone-dependent tumor, this has not been proven in previous studies. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of hormone receptors in JNA and the relationship with clinical characteristics. Standard immunohistochemical microarray analysis was performed on 70 JNA samples and 10 turbinate tissue samples. Specific antibodies for androgen receptor (AR), estrogen receptor-α (ER-α), estrogen receptor-β (ER-β), progesterone receptor (PR), and VEGF were examined, and the relationships of receptor expression with age, tumor stage, and bleeding were evaluated. RESULTS showed that JNA expressed ER-α (92.9%), ER-β (91.4%), AR (65.7%), PR (12.8%), and VEGF (95.7%) at different levels. High level of VEGF was linked to elevated ER-α and ER-β. There was no significant relationship between hormonal receptors and age at diagnosis, tumor stage or bleeding. However, overexpression of ER-α was found to be an indicator of poor prognosis (p = 0.031).

  19. Nanotechnology: moving from microarrays toward nanoarrays.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Hua; Li, Jun

    2007-01-01

    Microarrays are important tools for high-throughput analysis of biomolecules. The use of microarrays for parallel screening of nucleic acid and protein profiles has become an industry standard. A few limitations of microarrays are the requirement for relatively large sample volumes and elongated incubation time, as well as the limit of detection. In addition, traditional microarrays make use of bulky instrumentation for the detection, and sample amplification and labeling are quite laborious, which increase analysis cost and delays the time for obtaining results. These problems limit microarray techniques from point-of-care and field applications. One strategy for overcoming these problems is to develop nanoarrays, particularly electronics-based nanoarrays. With further miniaturization, higher sensitivity, and simplified sample preparation, nanoarrays could potentially be employed for biomolecular analysis in personal healthcare and monitoring of trace pathogens. In this chapter, it is intended to introduce the concept and advantage of nanotechnology and then describe current methods and protocols for novel nanoarrays in three aspects: (1) label-free nucleic acids analysis using nanoarrays, (2) nanoarrays for protein detection by conventional optical fluorescence microscopy as well as by novel label-free methods such as atomic force microscopy, and (3) nanoarray for enzymatic-based assay. These nanoarrays will have significant applications in drug discovery, medical diagnosis, genetic testing, environmental monitoring, and food safety inspection.

  20. Gene expression profiling in gill tissues of White spot syndrome virus infected black tiger shrimp Penaeus monodon by DNA microarray.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shekhar, M S; Gomathi, A; Gopikrishna, G; Ponniah, A G

    2015-06-01

    White spot syndrome virus (WSSV) continues to be the most devastating viral pathogen infecting penaeid shrimp the world over. The genome of WSSV has been deciphered and characterized from three geographical isolates and significant progress has been made in developing various molecular diagnostic methods to detect the virus. However, the information on host immune gene response to WSSV pathogenesis is limited. Microarray analysis was carried out as an approach to analyse the gene expression in black tiger shrimp Penaeus monodon in response to WSSV infection. Gill tissues collected from the WSSV infected shrimp at 6, 24, 48 h and moribund stage were analysed for differential gene expression. Shrimp cDNAs of 40,059 unique sequences were considered for designing the microarray chip. The Cy3-labeled cRNA derived from healthy and WSSV-infected shrimp was subjected to hybridization with all the DNA spots in the microarray which revealed 8,633 and 11,147 as up- and down-regulated genes respectively at different time intervals post infection. The altered expression of these numerous genes represented diverse functions such as immune response, osmoregulation, apoptosis, nucleic acid binding, energy and metabolism, signal transduction, stress response and molting. The changes in gene expression profiles observed by microarray analysis provides molecular insights and framework of genes which are up- and down-regulated at different time intervals during WSSV infection in shrimp. The microarray data was validated by Real Time analysis of four differentially expressed genes involved in apoptosis (translationally controlled tumor protein, inhibitor of apoptosis protein, ubiquitin conjugated enzyme E2 and caspase) for gene expression levels. The role of apoptosis related genes in WSSV infected shrimp is discussed herein.

  1. Microarray expression profiling of human dental pulp from single subject.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tete, Stefano; Mastrangelo, Filiberto; Scioletti, Anna Paola; Tranasi, Michelangelo; Raicu, Florina; Paolantonio, Michele; Stuppia, Liborio; Vinci, Raffaele; Gherlone, Enrico; Ciampoli, Cristian; Sberna, Maria Teresa; Conti, Pio

    2008-01-01

    Microarray is a recently developed simultaneous analysis of expression patterns of thousand of genes. The aim of this research was to evaluate the expression profile of human healthy dental pulp in order to find the presence of genes activated and encoding for proteins involved in the physiological process of human dental pulp. We report data obtained by analyzing expression profiles of human tooth pulp from single subjects, using an approach based on the amplification of the total RNA. Experiments were performed on a high-density array able to analyse about 21,000 oligonucleotide sequences of about 70 bases in duplicate, using an approach based on the amplification of the total RNA from the pulp of a single tooth. Obtained data were analyzed using the S.A.M. system (Significance Analysis of Microarray) and genes were merged according to their molecular functions and biological process by the Onto-Express software. The microarray analysis revealed 362 genes with specific pulp expression. Genes showing significant high expression were classified in genes involved in tooth development, protoncogenes, genes of collagen, DNAse, Metallopeptidases and Growth factors. We report a microarray analysis, carried out by extraction of total RNA from specimens of healthy human dental pulp tissue. This approach represents a powerful tool in the study of human normal and pathological pulp, allowing minimization of the genetic variability due to the pooling of samples from different individuals.

  2. No-cost manual method for preparation of tissue microarrays having high quality comparable to semiautomated methods.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Foda, Abd Al-Rahman Mohammad

    2013-05-01

    Manual tissue microarray (TMA) construction had been introduced to avoid the high cost of automated and semiautomated techniques. The cheapest and simplest technique for constructing manual TMA was that of using mechanical pencil tips. This study was carried out to modify this method, aiming to raise its quality to reach that of expensive ones. Some modifications were introduced to Shebl's technique. Two conventional mechanical pencil tips of different diameters were used to construct the recipient blocks. A source of mild heat was used, and blocks were incubated at 38°C overnight. With our modifications, 3 high-density TMA blocks were constructed. We successfully performed immunostaining without substantial tissue loss. Our modifications increased the number of cores per block and improved the stability of the cores within the paraffin block. This new, modified technique is a good alternative for expensive machines in many laboratories.

  3. Evaluation of Zinc-alpha-2-Glycoprotein and Proteasome Subunit beta-Type 6 Expression in Prostate Cancer Using Tissue Microarray Technology.

    LENUS (Irish Health Repository)

    2010-07-23

    Prostate cancer (CaP) is a significant cause of illness and death in males. Current detection strategies do not reliably detect the disease at an early stage and cannot distinguish aggressive versus nonaggressive CaP leading to potential overtreatment of the disease and associated morbidity. Zinc-alpha-2-glycoprotein (ZAG) and proteasome subunit beta-Type 6 (PSMB-6) were found to be up-regulated in the serum of CaP patients with higher grade tumors after 2-dimensional difference gel electrophoresis analysis. The aim of this study was to investigate if ZAG and PSMB-6 were also overexpressed in prostatic tumor tissue of CaP patients. Immunohistochemical analysis was performed on CaP tissue microarrays with samples from 199 patients. Confirmatory gene expression profiling for ZAG and PSMB-6 were performed on 4 cases using Laser Capture Microdissection and TaqMan real-time polymerase chain reaction. ZAG expression in CaP epithelial cells was inversely associated with Gleason grade (benign prostatic hyperplasia>G3>G4\\/G5). PSMB-6 was not expressed in either tumor or benign epithelium. However, strong PSMB-6 expression was noted in stromal and inflammatory cells. Our results indicate ZAG as a possible predictive marker of Gleason grade. The inverse association between grade and tissue expression with a rising serum protein level is similar to that seen with prostate-specific antigen. In addition, the results for both ZAG and PSMB-6 highlight the challenges in trying to associate the protein levels in serum with tissue expression.

  4. Carbohydrate microarrays

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Park, Sungjin; Gildersleeve, Jeffrey C; Blixt, Klas Ola

    2012-01-01

    In the last decade, carbohydrate microarrays have been core technologies for analyzing carbohydrate-mediated recognition events in a high-throughput fashion. A number of methods have been exploited for immobilizing glycans on the solid surface in a microarray format. This microarray...... of substrate specificities of glycosyltransferases. This review covers the construction of carbohydrate microarrays, detection methods of carbohydrate microarrays and their applications in biological and biomedical research....

  5. Candidate Genes for Testicular Cancer Evaluated by In Situ Protein Expression Analyses on Tissue Microarrays

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rolf I. Skotheim

    2003-09-01

    Full Text Available By the use of high-throughput molecular technologies, the number of genes and proteins potentially relevant to testicular germ cell tumor (TGCT and other diseases will increase rapidly. In a recent transcriptional profiling, we demonstrated the overexpression of GRB7 and JUP in TGCTs, confirmed the reported overexpression of CCND2. We also have recent evidences for frequent genetic alterations of FHIT and epigenetic alterations of MGMT. To evaluate whether the expression of these genes is related to any clinicopathological variables, we constructed a tissue microarray with 510 testicular tissue cores from 279 patients diagnosed with TGCT, covering various histological subgroups and clinical stages. By immunohistochemistry, we found that JUP, GRB7, CCND2 proteins were rarely present in normal testis, but frequently expressed at high levels in TGCT. Additionally, all premalignant intratubular germ cell neoplasias were JUP-immunopositive. MGMT and FHIT were expressed by normal testicular tissues, but at significantly lower frequencies in TGCT. Except for CCND2, the expressions of all markers were significantly associated with various TGCT subtypes. In summary, we have developed a high-throughput tool for the evaluation of TGCT markers, utilized this to validate five candidate genes whose protein expressions were indeed deregulated in TGCT.

  6. Integrative missing value estimation for microarray data.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hu, Jianjun; Li, Haifeng; Waterman, Michael S; Zhou, Xianghong Jasmine

    2006-10-12

    Missing value estimation is an important preprocessing step in microarray analysis. Although several methods have been developed to solve this problem, their performance is unsatisfactory for datasets with high rates of missing data, high measurement noise, or limited numbers of samples. In fact, more than 80% of the time-series datasets in Stanford Microarray Database contain less than eight samples. We present the integrative Missing Value Estimation method (iMISS) by incorporating information from multiple reference microarray datasets to improve missing value estimation. For each gene with missing data, we derive a consistent neighbor-gene list by taking reference data sets into consideration. To determine whether the given reference data sets are sufficiently informative for integration, we use a submatrix imputation approach. Our experiments showed that iMISS can significantly and consistently improve the accuracy of the state-of-the-art Local Least Square (LLS) imputation algorithm by up to 15% improvement in our benchmark tests. We demonstrated that the order-statistics-based integrative imputation algorithms can achieve significant improvements over the state-of-the-art missing value estimation approaches such as LLS and is especially good for imputing microarray datasets with a limited number of samples, high rates of missing data, or very noisy measurements. With the rapid accumulation of microarray datasets, the performance of our approach can be further improved by incorporating larger and more appropriate reference datasets.

  7. Potential upstream regulators of cannabinoid receptor 1 signaling in prostate cancer: a Bayesian network analysis of data from a tissue microarray.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Häggström, Jenny; Cipriano, Mariateresa; Forshell, Linus Plym; Persson, Emma; Hammarsten, Peter; Stella, Nephi; Fowler, Christopher J

    2014-08-01

    The endocannabinoid system regulates cancer cell proliferation, and in prostate cancer a high cannabinoid CB1 receptor expression is associated with a poor prognosis. Down-stream mediators of CB1 receptor signaling in prostate cancer are known, but information on potential upstream regulators is lacking. Data from a well-characterized tumor tissue microarray were used for a Bayesian network analysis using the max-min hill-climbing method. In non-malignant tissue samples, a directionality of pEGFR (the phosphorylated form of the epidermal growth factor receptor) → CB1 receptors were found regardless as to whether the endocannabinoid metabolizing enzyme fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH) was included as a parameter. A similar result was found in the tumor tissue, but only when FAAH was included in the analysis. A second regulatory pathway, from the growth factor receptor ErbB2 → FAAH was also identified in the tumor samples. Transfection of AT1 prostate cancer cells with CB1 receptors induced a sensitivity to the growth-inhibiting effects of the CB receptor agonist CP55,940. The sensitivity was not dependent upon the level of receptor expression. Thus a high CB1 receptor expression alone does not drive the cells towards a survival phenotype in the presence of a CB receptor agonist. The data identify two potential regulators of the endocannabinoid system in prostate cancer and allow the construction of a model of a dysregulated endocannabinoid signaling network in this tumor. Further studies should be designed to test the veracity of the predictions of the network analysis in prostate cancer and other solid tumors. © 2014 The Authors. The Prostate published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  8. Feasibility of using tissue microarray cores of paraffin-embedded breast cancer tissue for measurement of gene expression: a proof-of-concept study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Drury, Suzanne; Salter, Janine; Baehner, Frederick L; Shak, Steven; Dowsett, Mitch

    2010-06-01

    To determine whether 0.6 mm cores of formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissue, as commonly used to construct immunohistochemical tissue microarrays, may be a valid alternative to tissue sections as source material for quantitative real-time PCR-based transcriptional profiling of breast cancer. Four matched 0.6 mm cores of invasive breast tumour and two 10 microm whole sections were taken from eight FFPE blocks. RNA was extracted and reverse transcribed, and TaqMan assays were performed on the 21 genes of the Oncotype DX Breast Cancer assay. Expression of the 16 recurrence-related genes was normalised to the set of five reference genes, and the recurrence score (RS) was calculated. RNA yield was lower from 0.6 mm cores than from 10 microm whole sections, but was still more than sufficient to perform the assay. RS and single gene data from cores were highly comparable with those from whole sections (RS p=0.005). Greater variability was seen between cores than between sections. FFPE sections are preferable to 0.6 mm cores for RNA profiling in order to maximise RNA yield and to allow for standard histopathological assessment. However, 0.6 mm cores are sufficient and would be appropriate to use for large cohort studies.

  9. Comparing transformation methods for DNA microarray data

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Thygesen, Helene H.; Zwinderman, Aeilko H.

    2004-01-01

    Background: When DNA microarray data are used for gene clustering, genotype/phenotype correlation studies, or tissue classification the signal intensities are usually transformed and normalized in several steps in order to improve comparability and signal/noise ratio. These steps may include

  10. Interval-value Based Particle Swarm Optimization algorithm for cancer-type specific gene selection and sample classification

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    D. Ramyachitra

    2015-09-01

    Full Text Available Microarray technology allows simultaneous measurement of the expression levels of thousands of genes within a biological tissue sample. The fundamental power of microarrays lies within the ability to conduct parallel surveys of gene expression using microarray data. The classification of tissue samples based on gene expression data is an important problem in medical diagnosis of diseases such as cancer. In gene expression data, the number of genes is usually very high compared to the number of data samples. Thus the difficulty that lies with data are of high dimensionality and the sample size is small. This research work addresses the problem by classifying resultant dataset using the existing algorithms such as Support Vector Machine (SVM, K-nearest neighbor (KNN, Interval Valued Classification (IVC and the improvised Interval Value based Particle Swarm Optimization (IVPSO algorithm. Thus the results show that the IVPSO algorithm outperformed compared with other algorithms under several performance evaluation functions.

  11. Interval-value Based Particle Swarm Optimization algorithm for cancer-type specific gene selection and sample classification.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ramyachitra, D; Sofia, M; Manikandan, P

    2015-09-01

    Microarray technology allows simultaneous measurement of the expression levels of thousands of genes within a biological tissue sample. The fundamental power of microarrays lies within the ability to conduct parallel surveys of gene expression using microarray data. The classification of tissue samples based on gene expression data is an important problem in medical diagnosis of diseases such as cancer. In gene expression data, the number of genes is usually very high compared to the number of data samples. Thus the difficulty that lies with data are of high dimensionality and the sample size is small. This research work addresses the problem by classifying resultant dataset using the existing algorithms such as Support Vector Machine (SVM), K-nearest neighbor (KNN), Interval Valued Classification (IVC) and the improvised Interval Value based Particle Swarm Optimization (IVPSO) algorithm. Thus the results show that the IVPSO algorithm outperformed compared with other algorithms under several performance evaluation functions.

  12. A Rational Approach for Discovering and Validating Cancer Markers in Very Small Samples Using Mass Spectrometry and ELISA Microarrays

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Richard C. Zangar

    2004-01-01

    Full Text Available Identifying useful markers of cancer can be problematic due to limited amounts of sample. Some samples such as nipple aspirate fluid (NAF or early-stage tumors are inherently small. Other samples such as serum are collected in larger volumes but archives of these samples are very valuable and only small amounts of each sample may be available for a single study. Also, given the diverse nature of cancer and the inherent variability in individual protein levels, it seems likely that the best approach to screen for cancer will be to determine the profile of a battery of proteins. As a result, a major challenge in identifying protein markers of disease is the ability to screen many proteins using very small amounts of sample. In this review, we outline some technological advances in proteomics that greatly advance this capability. Specifically, we propose a strategy for identifying markers of breast cancer in NAF that utilizes mass spectrometry (MS to simultaneously screen hundreds or thousands of proteins in each sample. The best potential markers identified by the MS analysis can then be extensively characterized using an ELISA microarray assay. Because the microarray analysis is quantitative and large numbers of samples can be efficiently analyzed, this approach offers the ability to rapidly assess a battery of selected proteins in a manner that is directly relevant to traditional clinical assays.

  13. Integrative missing value estimation for microarray data

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zhou Xianghong

    2006-10-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Missing value estimation is an important preprocessing step in microarray analysis. Although several methods have been developed to solve this problem, their performance is unsatisfactory for datasets with high rates of missing data, high measurement noise, or limited numbers of samples. In fact, more than 80% of the time-series datasets in Stanford Microarray Database contain less than eight samples. Results We present the integrative Missing Value Estimation method (iMISS by incorporating information from multiple reference microarray datasets to improve missing value estimation. For each gene with missing data, we derive a consistent neighbor-gene list by taking reference data sets into consideration. To determine whether the given reference data sets are sufficiently informative for integration, we use a submatrix imputation approach. Our experiments showed that iMISS can significantly and consistently improve the accuracy of the state-of-the-art Local Least Square (LLS imputation algorithm by up to 15% improvement in our benchmark tests. Conclusion We demonstrated that the order-statistics-based integrative imputation algorithms can achieve significant improvements over the state-of-the-art missing value estimation approaches such as LLS and is especially good for imputing microarray datasets with a limited number of samples, high rates of missing data, or very noisy measurements. With the rapid accumulation of microarray datasets, the performance of our approach can be further improved by incorporating larger and more appropriate reference datasets.

  14. Microarray Gene Expression Analysis to Evaluate Cell Type Specific Expression of Targets Relevant for Immunotherapy of Hematological Malignancies.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M J Pont

    Full Text Available Cellular immunotherapy has proven to be effective in the treatment of hematological cancers by donor lymphocyte infusion after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation and more recently by targeted therapy with chimeric antigen or T-cell receptor-engineered T cells. However, dependent on the tissue distribution of the antigens that are targeted, anti-tumor responses can be accompanied by undesired side effects. Therefore, detailed tissue distribution analysis is essential to estimate potential efficacy and toxicity of candidate targets for immunotherapy of hematological malignancies. We performed microarray gene expression analysis of hematological malignancies of different origins, healthy hematopoietic cells and various non-hematopoietic cell types from organs that are often targeted in detrimental immune responses after allogeneic stem cell transplantation leading to graft-versus-host disease. Non-hematopoietic cells were also cultured in the presence of IFN-γ to analyze gene expression under inflammatory circumstances. Gene expression was investigated by Illumina HT12.0 microarrays and quality control analysis was performed to confirm the cell-type origin and exclude contamination of non-hematopoietic cell samples with peripheral blood cells. Microarray data were validated by quantitative RT-PCR showing strong correlations between both platforms. Detailed gene expression profiles were generated for various minor histocompatibility antigens and B-cell surface antigens to illustrate the value of the microarray dataset to estimate efficacy and toxicity of candidate targets for immunotherapy. In conclusion, our microarray database provides a relevant platform to analyze and select candidate antigens with hematopoietic (lineage-restricted expression as potential targets for immunotherapy of hematological cancers.

  15. Can intrinsic human tissue radiosensitivity be correlated with late responding gene RNA expression in white blood cells using a 96 gene micro-array?

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Schmidt, D.; Streeter, O.; Dagliyan, G.; Hill, C.K.; Williams-Hill, D.M.

    2003-01-01

    Radiation is widely used in the treatment of cancers. It is generally believed there is a sigmoid relationship between radiation dose and probability of cure. There is also a sigmoid relationship between radiation dose and normal tissue response. Generally total radiation dose to a tumor is limited by normal tissue tolerance. It has been postulated that up to 70% of inter-individual differences in radiosensitivity may be due to genetic predisposition (Tureson I. Et al, IJROBP, 1996;36:1065). However, to date, clinicians have no way of estimating or predicting an individual's normal tissue response to radiation exposure. Thus the prescribed dose cannot be tailored to an individuals actual expected response but is an empirically derived compromise based on experience. Although a number of studies using cellular techniques have shown that human cell radiosensitivity can be measured, none of these can be performed quick enough to be used in the clinic. In this study we are looking at gene expression that occurs some 24 hours after an exposure compared to expression before any exposure in peripheral white blood cells from patients undergoing radiotherapy for various tumors. The patients will be followed for overt radiation sensitivity by standard criteria by clinicians in the Department. The main aims are: does RNA expression level in a 96 gene micro-array vary before and after radiation and do these changes in RNA expression correlate with the objective measurements of acute radiation response observed by the clinicians in the patients. The USC IRB recently approved the protocol and human consent for this study to enter 50 patients in the next 12 months using mostly head and neck and endometrial cancer patients where we can get a normal tissue sample to examine as well as the blood sample. We will present the rationale, protocol, methods and early results in detail

  16. Tissue Sampling Guides for Porcine Biomedical Models.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Albl, Barbara; Haesner, Serena; Braun-Reichhart, Christina; Streckel, Elisabeth; Renner, Simone; Seeliger, Frank; Wolf, Eckhard; Wanke, Rüdiger; Blutke, Andreas

    2016-04-01

    This article provides guidelines for organ and tissue sampling adapted to porcine animal models in translational medical research. Detailed protocols for the determination of sampling locations and numbers as well as recommendations on the orientation, size, and trimming direction of samples from ∼50 different porcine organs and tissues are provided in the Supplementary Material. The proposed sampling protocols include the generation of samples suitable for subsequent qualitative and quantitative analyses, including cryohistology, paraffin, and plastic histology; immunohistochemistry;in situhybridization; electron microscopy; and quantitative stereology as well as molecular analyses of DNA, RNA, proteins, metabolites, and electrolytes. With regard to the planned extent of sampling efforts, time, and personnel expenses, and dependent upon the scheduled analyses, different protocols are provided. These protocols are adjusted for (I) routine screenings, as used in general toxicity studies or in analyses of gene expression patterns or histopathological organ alterations, (II) advanced analyses of single organs/tissues, and (III) large-scale sampling procedures to be applied in biobank projects. Providing a robust reference for studies of porcine models, the described protocols will ensure the efficiency of sampling, the systematic recovery of high-quality samples representing the entire organ or tissue as well as the intra-/interstudy comparability and reproducibility of results. © The Author(s) 2016.

  17. Discovery of distinctive gene expression profiles in rheumatoid synovium using cDNA microarray technology: evidence for the existence of multiple pathways of tissue destruction and repair.

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Kraan, TC van der Pouw; Gaalen, van FA; Huizinga, T.W.; Pieterman, E; Breedveld, F.C.; Verweij, C.L.

    2003-01-01

    Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a heterogeneous disease. We used cDNA microarray technology to subclassify RA patients and disclose disease pathways in rheumatoid synovium. Hierarchical clustering of gene expression data identified two main groups of tissues (RA-I and RA-II). A total of 121 genes were

  18. The clinicopathologic association of c-MET overexpression in Iranian gastric carcinomas; an immunohistochemical study of tissue microarrays.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sotoudeh, Kambiz; Hashemi, Forough; Madjd, Zahra; Sadeghipour, Alireza; Molanaei, Saadat; Kalantary, Elham

    2012-05-28

    c-MET is an oncogene protein that plays important role in gastric carcinogenesis and has been introduced as a prognostic marker and potential therapeutic target. The aim of this study was to evaluate the frequency of c-MET overexpression and its relationship with clinicopathological variables in gastric cancer of Iranian population using tissue microarray. In a cross sectional study, representative paraffin blocks of 130 patients with gastric carcinoma treated by curative gastrectomy during a 2 years period of 2008-2009 in two university hospitals in Tehran-Iran were collected in tissue microarray and c-MET expression was studied by immunohistochemical staining. Finally 124 cases were evaluated, constituted of 99 male and 25 female with the average age of 61.5 years. In 71% (88/124) of tumors, c-MET high expression was found. c-MET high expression was more associated with intestinal than diffuse tumor type (P = 0.04), deeper tumor invasion, pT3 and pT4 versus pT1 and pT2 (P = 0.014), neural invasion (P = 0.002) and advanced TNM staging, stage 3 and 4 versus stage 1 and2 (P = 0.044). The c-MET high expression was not associated with age, sex, tumor location, differentiation grade and distant metastasis, but relative associations with lymph node metastasis (P = 0.065) and vascular invasion (P = 0.078) were observed. c-MET oncogene protein was frequently overexpressed in Iranian gastric carcinomas and it was related to clinicopathological characteristics such as tumor type, depth of invasion, neural invasion and TNM staging. It can also support the idea that c-MET is a potential marker for target therapy in Iranian gastric cancer. The virtual slide(s) for this article can be found here: http://www.diagnosticpathology.diagnomx.eu/vs/9744598757151429.

  19. Integrative proteomics and tissue microarray profiling indicate the association between overexpressed serum proteins and non-small cell lung cancer.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yansheng Liu

    Full Text Available Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths worldwide. Clinically, the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC can be improved by the early detection and risk screening among population. To meet this need, here we describe the application of extensive peptide level fractionation coupled with label free quantitative proteomics for the discovery of potential serum biomarkers for lung cancer, and the usage of Tissue microarray analysis (TMA and Multiple reaction monitoring (MRM assays for the following up validations in the verification phase. Using these state-of-art, currently available clinical proteomic approaches, in the discovery phase we confidently identified 647 serum proteins, and 101 proteins showed a statistically significant association with NSCLC in our 18 discovery samples. This serum proteomic dataset allowed us to discern the differential patterns and abnormal biological processes in the lung cancer blood. Of these proteins, Alpha-1B-glycoprotein (A1BG and Leucine-rich alpha-2-glycoprotein (LRG1, two plasma glycoproteins with previously unknown function were selected as examples for which TMA and MRM verification were performed in a large sample set consisting about 100 patients. We revealed that A1BG and LRG1 were overexpressed in both the blood level and tumor sections, which can be referred to separate lung cancer patients from healthy cases.

  20. Sampling Strategies and Processing of Biobank Tissue Samples from Porcine Biomedical Models.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Blutke, Andreas; Wanke, Rüdiger

    2018-03-06

    In translational medical research, porcine models have steadily become more popular. Considering the high value of individual animals, particularly of genetically modified pig models, and the often-limited number of available animals of these models, establishment of (biobank) collections of adequately processed tissue samples suited for a broad spectrum of subsequent analyses methods, including analyses not specified at the time point of sampling, represent meaningful approaches to take full advantage of the translational value of the model. With respect to the peculiarities of porcine anatomy, comprehensive guidelines have recently been established for standardized generation of representative, high-quality samples from different porcine organs and tissues. These guidelines are essential prerequisites for the reproducibility of results and their comparability between different studies and investigators. The recording of basic data, such as organ weights and volumes, the determination of the sampling locations and of the numbers of tissue samples to be generated, as well as their orientation, size, processing and trimming directions, are relevant factors determining the generalizability and usability of the specimen for molecular, qualitative, and quantitative morphological analyses. Here, an illustrative, practical, step-by-step demonstration of the most important techniques for generation of representative, multi-purpose biobank specimen from porcine tissues is presented. The methods described here include determination of organ/tissue volumes and densities, the application of a volume-weighted systematic random sampling procedure for parenchymal organs by point-counting, determination of the extent of tissue shrinkage related to histological embedding of samples, and generation of randomly oriented samples for quantitative stereological analyses, such as isotropic uniform random (IUR) sections generated by the "Orientator" and "Isector" methods, and vertical

  1. The use of microarrays in microbial ecology

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Andersen, G.L.; He, Z.; DeSantis, T.Z.; Brodie, E.L.; Zhou, J.

    2009-09-15

    Microarrays have proven to be a useful and high-throughput method to provide targeted DNA sequence information for up to many thousands of specific genetic regions in a single test. A microarray consists of multiple DNA oligonucleotide probes that, under high stringency conditions, hybridize only to specific complementary nucleic acid sequences (targets). A fluorescent signal indicates the presence and, in many cases, the abundance of genetic regions of interest. In this chapter we will look at how microarrays are used in microbial ecology, especially with the recent increase in microbial community DNA sequence data. Of particular interest to microbial ecologists, phylogenetic microarrays are used for the analysis of phylotypes in a community and functional gene arrays are used for the analysis of functional genes, and, by inference, phylotypes in environmental samples. A phylogenetic microarray that has been developed by the Andersen laboratory, the PhyloChip, will be discussed as an example of a microarray that targets the known diversity within the 16S rRNA gene to determine microbial community composition. Using multiple, confirmatory probes to increase the confidence of detection and a mismatch probe for every perfect match probe to minimize the effect of cross-hybridization by non-target regions, the PhyloChip is able to simultaneously identify any of thousands of taxa present in an environmental sample. The PhyloChip is shown to reveal greater diversity within a community than rRNA gene sequencing due to the placement of the entire gene product on the microarray compared with the analysis of up to thousands of individual molecules by traditional sequencing methods. A functional gene array that has been developed by the Zhou laboratory, the GeoChip, will be discussed as an example of a microarray that dynamically identifies functional activities of multiple members within a community. The recent version of GeoChip contains more than 24,000 50mer

  2. DNA Microarrays: a Powerful Genomic Tool for Biomedical and Clinical Research

    OpenAIRE

    Trevino, Victor; Falciani, Francesco; Barrera-Saldaña, Hugo A

    2007-01-01

    Among the many benefits of the Human Genome Project are new and powerful tools such as the genome-wide hybridization devices referred to as microarrays. Initially designed to measure gene transcriptional levels, microarray technologies are now used for comparing other genome features among individuals and their tissues and cells. Results provide valuable information on disease subcategories, disease prognosis, and treatment outcome. Likewise, they reveal differences in genetic makeup, regulat...

  3. Microarray multiplex assay for the simultaneous detection and discrimination of hepatitis B, hepatitis C, and human immunodeficiency type-1 viruses in human blood samples

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hsia, Chu Chieh; Chizhikov, Vladimir E.; Yang, Amy X.; Selvapandiyan, Angamuthu; Hewlett, Indira; Duncan, Robert; Puri, Raj K.; Nakhasi, Hira L.; Kaplan, Gerardo G.

    2007-01-01

    Hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV), and human immunodeficiency virus type-1 (HIV-1) are transfusion-transmitted human pathogens that have a major impact on blood safety and public health worldwide. We developed a microarray multiplex assay for the simultaneous detection and discrimination of these three viruses. The microarray consists of 16 oligonucleotide probes, immobilized on a silylated glass slide. Amplicons from multiplex PCR were labeled with Cy-5 and hybridized to the microarray. The assay detected 1 International Unit (IU), 10 IU, 20 IU of HBV, HCV, and HIV-1, respectively, in a single multiplex reaction. The assay also detected and discriminated the presence of two or three of these viruses in a single sample. Our data represent a proof-of-concept for the possible use of highly sensitive multiplex microarray assay to screen and confirm the presence of these viruses in blood donors and patients

  4. Profiling cellular protein complexes by proximity ligation with dual tag microarray readout.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hammond, Maria; Nong, Rachel Yuan; Ericsson, Olle; Pardali, Katerina; Landegren, Ulf

    2012-01-01

    Patterns of protein interactions provide important insights in basic biology, and their analysis plays an increasing role in drug development and diagnostics of disease. We have established a scalable technique to compare two biological samples for the levels of all pairwise interactions among a set of targeted protein molecules. The technique is a combination of the proximity ligation assay with readout via dual tag microarrays. In the proximity ligation assay protein identities are encoded as DNA sequences by attaching DNA oligonucleotides to antibodies directed against the proteins of interest. Upon binding by pairs of antibodies to proteins present in the same molecular complexes, ligation reactions give rise to reporter DNA molecules that contain the combined sequence information from the two DNA strands. The ligation reactions also serve to incorporate a sample barcode in the reporter molecules to allow for direct comparison between pairs of samples. The samples are evaluated using a dual tag microarray where information is decoded, revealing which pairs of tags that have become joined. As a proof-of-concept we demonstrate that this approach can be used to detect a set of five proteins and their pairwise interactions both in cellular lysates and in fixed tissue culture cells. This paper provides a general strategy to analyze the extent of any pairwise interactions in large sets of molecules by decoding reporter DNA strands that identify the interacting molecules.

  5. Tumour auto-antibody screening: performance of protein microarrays using SEREX derived antigens

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Stempfer, René; Weinhäusel, Andreas; Syed, Parvez; Vierlinger, Klemens; Pichler, Rudolf; Meese, Eckart; Leidinger, Petra; Ludwig, Nicole; Kriegner, Albert; Nöhammer, Christa

    2010-01-01

    The simplicity and potential of minimal invasive testing using serum from patients make auto-antibody based biomarkers a very promising tool for use in diagnostics of cancer and auto-immune disease. Although several methods exist for elucidating candidate-protein markers, immobilizing these onto membranes and generating so called macroarrays is of limited use for marker validation. Especially when several hundred samples have to be analysed, microarrays could serve as a good alternative since processing macro membranes is cumbersome and reproducibility of results is moderate. Candidate markers identified by SEREX (serological identification of antigens by recombinant expression cloning) screenings of brain and lung tumour were used for macroarray and microarray production. For microarray production recombinant proteins were expressed in E. coli by autoinduction and purified His-tag (histidine-tagged) proteins were then used for the production of protein microarrays. Protein arrays were hybridized with the serum samples from brain and lung tumour patients. Methods for the generation of microarrays were successfully established when using antigens derived from membrane-based selection. Signal patterns obtained by microarrays analysis of brain and lung tumour patients' sera were highly reproducible (R = 0.92-0.96). This provides the technical foundation for diagnostic applications on the basis of auto-antibody patterns. In this limited test set, the assay provided high reproducibility and a broad dynamic range to classify all brain and lung samples correctly. Protein microarray is an efficient means for auto-antibody-based detection when using SEREX-derived clones expressing antigenic proteins. Protein microarrays are preferred to macroarrays due to the easier handling and the high reproducibility of auto-antibody testing. Especially when using only a few microliters of patient samples protein microarrays are ideally suited for validation of auto

  6. SLIMarray: Lightweight software for microarray facility management

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Marzolf Bruz

    2006-10-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Microarray core facilities are commonplace in biological research organizations, and need systems for accurately tracking various logistical aspects of their operation. Although these different needs could be handled separately, an integrated management system provides benefits in organization, automation and reduction in errors. Results We present SLIMarray (System for Lab Information Management of Microarrays, an open source, modular database web application capable of managing microarray inventories, sample processing and usage charges. The software allows modular configuration and is well suited for further development, providing users the flexibility to adapt it to their needs. SLIMarray Lite, a version of the software that is especially easy to install and run, is also available. Conclusion SLIMarray addresses the previously unmet need for free and open source software for managing the logistics of a microarray core facility.

  7. MicroRNA expression in melanocytic nevi: the usefulness of formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded material for miRNA microarray profiling.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Glud, Martin; Klausen, Mikkel; Gniadecki, Robert; Rossing, Maria; Hastrup, Nina; Nielsen, Finn C; Drzewiecki, Krzysztof T

    2009-05-01

    MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small, noncoding RNA molecules that regulate cellular differentiation, proliferation, and apoptosis. MiRNAs are expressed in a developmentally regulated and tissue-specific manner. Aberrant expression may contribute to pathological processes such as cancer, and miRNA may therefore serve as biomarkers that may be useful in a clinical environment for diagnosis of various diseases. Most miRNA profiling studies have used fresh tissue samples. However, in some types of cancer, including malignant melanoma, fresh material is difficult to obtain from primary tumors, and most surgical specimens are formalin fixed and paraffin embedded (FFPE). To explore whether FFPE material would be suitable for miRNA profiling in melanocytic lesions, we compared miRNA expression patterns in FFPE versus fresh frozen samples, obtained from 15 human melanocytic nevi. Out of microarray data, we identified 84 miRNAs that were expressed in both types of samples and represented an miRNA profile of melanocytic nevi. Our results showed a high correlation in miRNA expression (Spearman r-value of 0.80) between paired FFPE and fresh frozen material. The data were further validated by quantitative RT-PCR. In conclusion, FFPE specimens of melanocytic lesions are suitable as a source for miRNA microarray profiling.

  8. In-air micro-pixe analysis of tissue samples

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tanaka, A.; Ishii, K.; Komori, Y.

    2002-01-01

    Micro-PIXE is capable of providing spatial distributions of elements in the micro-meter scale and its application to biology is useful to elucidate the cellular metabolism. Since, in this method, a sample target is usually irradiated with proton or α-particle beams in vacuum, beam heating results in evaporation of volatile elements an shrinking of the sample. In order to avoid these side effects, we previously developed a technique of in-air micro-PIXE analysis for samples of cultured cells. In addition to these, analysis of exposed tissue samples from living subjects is highly desirable in biological and medical research. Here, we describe a technique of in-air micro-PIXE analysis of such tissue samples. The target samples of exposed tissue slices from a Donryu rat, in which a tumor had been transplanted, were analyzed with proton micro-beams of 2.6 MeV. We report that the shape of cells and the distribution of volatile elements in the tissue sample remain uncharged when using a target preparation based on a freeze-drying method. (author)

  9. Robust gene selection methods using weighting schemes for microarray data analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kang, Suyeon; Song, Jongwoo

    2017-09-02

    A common task in microarray data analysis is to identify informative genes that are differentially expressed between two different states. Owing to the high-dimensional nature of microarray data, identification of significant genes has been essential in analyzing the data. However, the performances of many gene selection techniques are highly dependent on the experimental conditions, such as the presence of measurement error or a limited number of sample replicates. We have proposed new filter-based gene selection techniques, by applying a simple modification to significance analysis of microarrays (SAM). To prove the effectiveness of the proposed method, we considered a series of synthetic datasets with different noise levels and sample sizes along with two real datasets. The following findings were made. First, our proposed methods outperform conventional methods for all simulation set-ups. In particular, our methods are much better when the given data are noisy and sample size is small. They showed relatively robust performance regardless of noise level and sample size, whereas the performance of SAM became significantly worse as the noise level became high or sample size decreased. When sufficient sample replicates were available, SAM and our methods showed similar performance. Finally, our proposed methods are competitive with traditional methods in classification tasks for microarrays. The results of simulation study and real data analysis have demonstrated that our proposed methods are effective for detecting significant genes and classification tasks, especially when the given data are noisy or have few sample replicates. By employing weighting schemes, we can obtain robust and reliable results for microarray data analysis.

  10. SEM investigation of heart tissue samples

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Saunders, R; Amoroso, M

    2010-01-01

    We used the scanning electron microscope to examine the cardiac tissue of a cow (Bos taurus), a pig (Sus scrofa), and a human (Homo sapiens). 1mm 3 blocks of left ventricular tissue were prepared for SEM scanning by fixing in 96% ethanol followed by critical point drying (cryofixation), then sputter-coating with gold. The typical ridged structure of the myofibrils was observed for all the species. In addition crystal like structures were found in one of the samples of the heart tissue of the pig. These structures were investigated further using an EDVAC x-ray analysis attachment to the SEM. Elemental x-ray analysis showed highest peaks occurred for gold, followed by carbon, oxygen, magnesium and potassium. As the samples were coated with gold for conductivity, this highest peak is expected. Much lower peaks at carbon, oxygen, magnesium and potassium suggest that a cystallized salt such as a carbonate was present in the tissue before sacrifice.

  11. SEM investigation of heart tissue samples

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Saunders, R; Amoroso, M [Physics Department, University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago, West Indies (Trinidad and Tobago)

    2010-07-01

    We used the scanning electron microscope to examine the cardiac tissue of a cow (Bos taurus), a pig (Sus scrofa), and a human (Homo sapiens). 1mm{sup 3} blocks of left ventricular tissue were prepared for SEM scanning by fixing in 96% ethanol followed by critical point drying (cryofixation), then sputter-coating with gold. The typical ridged structure of the myofibrils was observed for all the species. In addition crystal like structures were found in one of the samples of the heart tissue of the pig. These structures were investigated further using an EDVAC x-ray analysis attachment to the SEM. Elemental x-ray analysis showed highest peaks occurred for gold, followed by carbon, oxygen, magnesium and potassium. As the samples were coated with gold for conductivity, this highest peak is expected. Much lower peaks at carbon, oxygen, magnesium and potassium suggest that a cystallized salt such as a carbonate was present in the tissue before sacrifice.

  12. NM23 protein expression in colorectal carcinoma using TMA (tissue microarray: association with metastases and survival

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Levindo Alves de Oliveira

    2010-12-01

    Full Text Available CONTEXT: NM23, a metastasis suppressor gene, may be associated with prognosis in patients with colorectal carcinoma. OBJECTIVE: To analyze NM23 expression and its association with the presence of lymph node and liver metastases and survival in patients operated on for colorectal carcinoma. METHODS: One hundred thirty patients operated on for colorectal carcinoma were investigated. Tissue microarray blocks containing neoplastic tissue and tumor-adjacent non-neoplastic mucosa were obtained and analyzed by immunohistochemical staining using a monoclonal anti-NM23 antibody. Immunohistochemical expression was assessed using a semiquantitative scoring method, counting the percentage of stained cells. The results were compared regarding morphological and histological characteristics of the colorectal carcinoma, presence of lymph node and liver metastases, tumor staging, and patient survival. Statistical analysis was performed using the Mann-Whitney test, the Kruskal-Wallis test and Fisher's exact test. Survival analysis was performed using the Kaplan-Meier method and the log-rank test. RESULTS: NM23 expression was higher in colorectal carcinoma tissue than in adjacent non-neoplastic mucosa (P<0.0001. NM23 protein expression did not correlate with degree of cell differentiation (P = 0.57, vascular invasion (P = 0.85, lymphatic invasion (P = 0.41, perineural infiltration (P = 0.46, staging (P = 0.19, lymph node metastases (P = 0.08, or liver metastases (P = 0.59. Disease-free survival showed significant association (P = 0.01 with the intensity of NM23 protein immunohistochemical expression in colorectal carcinoma tissue, whereas overall survival showed no association with NM23 protein expression (P = 0.13. CONCLUSIONS: NM23 protein expression was higher in neoplastic colorectal carcinoma tissue than in adjacent non-neoplastic mucosa, showing no correlation with morphological aspects, presence of lymph node or liver metastases, colorectal carcinoma

  13. Quantitative miRNA expression analysis: comparing microarrays with next-generation sequencing

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Willenbrock, Hanni; Salomon, Jesper; Søkilde, Rolf

    2009-01-01

    Recently, next-generation sequencing has been introduced as a promising, new platform for assessing the copy number of transcripts, while the existing microarray technology is considered less reliable for absolute, quantitative expression measurements. Nonetheless, so far, results from the two...... technologies have only been compared based on biological data, leading to the conclusion that, although they are somewhat correlated, expression values differ significantly. Here, we use synthetic RNA samples, resembling human microRNA samples, to find that microarray expression measures actually correlate...... better with sample RNA content than expression measures obtained from sequencing data. In addition, microarrays appear highly sensitive and perform equivalently to next-generation sequencing in terms of reproducibility and relative ratio quantification....

  14. Principles of gene microarray data analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mocellin, Simone; Rossi, Carlo Riccardo

    2007-01-01

    The development of several gene expression profiling methods, such as comparative genomic hybridization (CGH), differential display, serial analysis of gene expression (SAGE), and gene microarray, together with the sequencing of the human genome, has provided an opportunity to monitor and investigate the complex cascade of molecular events leading to tumor development and progression. The availability of such large amounts of information has shifted the attention of scientists towards a nonreductionist approach to biological phenomena. High throughput technologies can be used to follow changing patterns of gene expression over time. Among them, gene microarray has become prominent because it is easier to use, does not require large-scale DNA sequencing, and allows for the parallel quantification of thousands of genes from multiple samples. Gene microarray technology is rapidly spreading worldwide and has the potential to drastically change the therapeutic approach to patients affected with tumor. Therefore, it is of paramount importance for both researchers and clinicians to know the principles underlying the analysis of the huge amount of data generated with microarray technology.

  15. Universal Reference RNA as a standard for microarray experiments

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fero Michael

    2004-03-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Obtaining reliable and reproducible two-color microarray gene expression data is critically important for understanding the biological significance of perturbations made on a cellular system. Microarray design, RNA preparation and labeling, hybridization conditions and data acquisition and analysis are variables difficult to simultaneously control. A useful tool for monitoring and controlling intra- and inter-experimental variation is Universal Reference RNA (URR, developed with the goal of providing hybridization signal at each microarray probe location (spot. Measuring signal at each spot as the ratio of experimental RNA to reference RNA targets, rather than relying on absolute signal intensity, decreases variability by normalizing signal output in any two-color hybridization experiment. Results Human, mouse and rat URR (UHRR, UMRR and URRR, respectively were prepared from pools of RNA derived from individual cell lines representing different tissues. A variety of microarrays were used to determine percentage of spots hybridizing with URR and producing signal above a user defined threshold (microarray coverage. Microarray coverage was consistently greater than 80% for all arrays tested. We confirmed that individual cell lines contribute their own unique set of genes to URR, arguing for a pool of RNA from several cell lines as a better configuration for URR as opposed to a single cell line source for URR. Microarray coverage comparing two separately prepared batches each of UHRR, UMRR and URRR were highly correlated (Pearson's correlation coefficients of 0.97. Conclusion Results of this study demonstrate that large quantities of pooled RNA from individual cell lines are reproducibly prepared and possess diverse gene representation. This type of reference provides a standard for reducing variation in microarray experiments and allows more reliable comparison of gene expression data within and between experiments and

  16. Immunohistochemical localization of steroid receptor coactivators in chondrosarcoma: an in vivo tissue microarray study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Wei; Fu, Jingshu; Bian, Chen; Zhang, Jiqiang; Xie, Zhao

    2014-12-01

    Chondrosarcoma is the second most common type of primary bone malignancy following up osteosarcoma, characterized by resistance to conventional chemotherapeutic agents and radiation regimens. The p160 family members steroid receptor coactivator-1 and -3 (SRC-1 and SRC-3) have been implied in the regulation of cancer growth, migration, invasion, metastasis and chemotherapeutic resistance; but we still lack detailed information about the levels of SRCs in chondrosarcoma. In this study, expression of SRC-1 and SRC-3 in chondrosarcoma was examined by immunohistochemistry with tissue microarrays; the four score system (0, 1, 2 and 3) was used to evaluate the staining. The results showed that there were no gender-, site- or age-differences regarding the expression of SRC-1 or SRC-3 (p>0.05); organ (bone or cartilage) -differences were only detected for SRC-1 but not SRC-3 (pchondrosarcoma, may be novel targets for the prognosis and/or treatment of chondrosarcoma, would have opened a new avenue and established foundation for studying chondrosarcoma. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.

  17. The clinicopathologic association of c-MET overexpression in Iranian gastric carcinomas; an immunohistochemical study of tissue microarrays

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sotoudeh Kambiz

    2012-05-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background c-MET is an oncogene protein that plays important role in gastric carcinogenesis and has been introduced as a prognostic marker and potential therapeutic target. The aim of this study was to evaluate the frequency of c-MET overexpression and its relationship with clinicopathological variables in gastric cancer of Iranian population using tissue microarray. Methods In a cross sectional study, representative paraffin blocks of 130 patients with gastric carcinoma treated by curative gastrectomy during a 2 years period of 2008–2009 in two university hospitals in Tehran-Iran were collected in tissue microarray and c-MET expression was studied by immunohistochemical staining. Results Finally 124 cases were evaluated, constituted of 99 male and 25 female with the average age of 61.5 years. In 71% (88/124 of tumors, c-MET high expression was found. c-MET high expression was more associated with intestinal than diffuse tumor type (P = 0.04, deeper tumor invasion, pT3 and pT4 versus pT1 and pT2 (P = 0.014, neural invasion (P = 0.002 and advanced TNM staging, stage 3 and 4 versus stage 1 and2 (P = 0.044. The c-MET high expression was not associated with age, sex, tumor location, differentiation grade and distant metastasis, but relative associations with lymph node metastasis (P = 0.065 and vascular invasion (P = 0.078 were observed. Conclusions c-MET oncogene protein was frequently overexpressed in Iranian gastric carcinomas and it was related to clinicopathological characteristics such as tumor type, depth of invasion, neural invasion and TNM staging. It can also support the idea that c-MET is a potential marker for target therapy in Iranian gastric cancer. Virtual slides The virtual slide(s for this article can be found here: http://www.diagnosticpathology.diagnomx.eu/vs/9744598757151429

  18. Microarray evaluation of age-related changes in human dental pulp.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tranasi, Michelangelo; Sberna, Maria Teresa; Zizzari, Vincenzo; D'Apolito, Giuseppe; Mastrangelo, Filiberto; Salini, Luisa; Stuppia, Liborio; Tetè, Stefano

    2009-09-01

    The dental pulp undergoes age-related changes that could be ascribed to physiological, defensive, or pathological irritant-induced changes. These changes are regulated by pulp cell activity and by a variety of extracellular matrix (ECM) macromolecules, playing important roles in growth regulation, tissue differentiation and organization, formation of calcified tissue, and defense mechanisms and reactions to inflammatory stimuli. The aim of this research was to better understand the genetic changes that underlie the histological modification of the dental pulp in aging. The gene expression profile of the human dental pulp in young and older subjects was compared by RNA microarray analysis that allowed to simultaneously analyze the expression levels of thousands of genes. Data were statistically analyzed by Significance Analysis of Microarrays (SAM) Ingenuity Pathway Analysis (IPA) software. Semiquantitative and real-time reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction analyses were performed to confirm the results. Microarray analysis revealed several differentially expressed genes that were categorized in growth factors, transcription regulators, apoptosis regulators, and genes of the ECM. The comparison analysis showed a high expression level of the biological functions of cell and tissue differentiation, development, and proliferation and of the immune, lymphatic, and hematologic system in young dental pulp, whereas the pathway of apoptosis was highly expressed in older dental pulp. Expression profile analyses of human dental pulp represent a sensible and useful tool for the study of mechanisms involved in differentiation, growth and aging of human dental pulp in physiological and pathological conditions.

  19. A mixture model-based approach to the clustering of microarray expression data.

    Science.gov (United States)

    McLachlan, G J; Bean, R W; Peel, D

    2002-03-01

    This paper introduces the software EMMIX-GENE that has been developed for the specific purpose of a model-based approach to the clustering of microarray expression data, in particular, of tissue samples on a very large number of genes. The latter is a nonstandard problem in parametric cluster analysis because the dimension of the feature space (the number of genes) is typically much greater than the number of tissues. A feasible approach is provided by first selecting a subset of the genes relevant for the clustering of the tissue samples by fitting mixtures of t distributions to rank the genes in order of increasing size of the likelihood ratio statistic for the test of one versus two components in the mixture model. The imposition of a threshold on the likelihood ratio statistic used in conjunction with a threshold on the size of a cluster allows the selection of a relevant set of genes. However, even this reduced set of genes will usually be too large for a normal mixture model to be fitted directly to the tissues, and so the use of mixtures of factor analyzers is exploited to reduce effectively the dimension of the feature space of genes. The usefulness of the EMMIX-GENE approach for the clustering of tissue samples is demonstrated on two well-known data sets on colon and leukaemia tissues. For both data sets, relevant subsets of the genes are able to be selected that reveal interesting clusterings of the tissues that are either consistent with the external classification of the tissues or with background and biological knowledge of these sets. EMMIX-GENE is available at http://www.maths.uq.edu.au/~gjm/emmix-gene/

  20. Microarray Data Processing Techniques for Genome-Scale Network Inference from Large Public Repositories.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chockalingam, Sriram; Aluru, Maneesha; Aluru, Srinivas

    2016-09-19

    Pre-processing of microarray data is a well-studied problem. Furthermore, all popular platforms come with their own recommended best practices for differential analysis of genes. However, for genome-scale network inference using microarray data collected from large public repositories, these methods filter out a considerable number of genes. This is primarily due to the effects of aggregating a diverse array of experiments with different technical and biological scenarios. Here we introduce a pre-processing pipeline suitable for inferring genome-scale gene networks from large microarray datasets. We show that partitioning of the available microarray datasets according to biological relevance into tissue- and process-specific categories significantly extends the limits of downstream network construction. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our pre-processing pipeline by inferring genome-scale networks for the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana using two different construction methods and a collection of 11,760 Affymetrix ATH1 microarray chips. Our pre-processing pipeline and the datasets used in this paper are made available at http://alurulab.cc.gatech.edu/microarray-pp.

  1. Hematopoietic Lineage Transcriptome Stability and Representation in PAXgene Collected Peripheral Blood Utilising SPIA Single-Stranded cDNA Probes for Microarray.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kennedy, Laura; Vass, J Keith; Haggart, D Ross; Moore, Steve; Burczynski, Michael E; Crowther, Dan; Miele, Gino

    2008-08-25

    Peripheral blood as a surrogate tissue for transcriptome profiling holds great promise for the discovery of diagnostic and prognostic disease biomarkers, particularly when target tissues of disease are not readily available. To maximize the reliability of gene expression data generated from clinical blood samples, both the sample collection and the microarray probe generation methods should be optimized to provide stabilized, reproducible and representative gene expression profiles faithfully representing the transcriptional profiles of the constituent blood cell types present in the circulation. Given the increasing innovation in this field in recent years, we investigated a combination of methodological advances in both RNA stabilisation and microarray probe generation with the goal of achieving robust, reliable and representative transcriptional profiles from whole blood. To assess the whole blood profiles, the transcriptomes of purified blood cell types were measured and compared with the global transcriptomes measured in whole blood. The results demonstrate that a combination of PAXgene() RNA stabilising technology and single-stranded cDNA probe generation afforded by the NuGEN Ovation RNA amplification system V2() enables an approach that yields faithful representation of specific hematopoietic cell lineage transcriptomes in whole blood without the necessity for prior sample fractionation, cell enrichment or globin reduction. Storage stability assessments of the PAXgene() blood samples also advocate a short, fixed room temperature storage time for all PAXgene() blood samples collected for the purposes of global transcriptional profiling in clinical studies.

  2. Hematopoietic Lineage Transcriptome Stability and Representation in PAXgene™ Collected Peripheral Blood Utilising SPIA Single-Stranded cDNA Probes for Microarray

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kennedy, Laura; Vass, J. Keith; Haggart, D. Ross; Moore, Steve; Burczynski, Michael E.; Crowther, Dan; Miele, Gino

    2008-01-01

    Peripheral blood as a surrogate tissue for transcriptome profiling holds great promise for the discovery of diagnostic and prognostic disease biomarkers, particularly when target tissues of disease are not readily available. To maximize the reliability of gene expression data generated from clinical blood samples, both the sample collection and the microarray probe generation methods should be optimized to provide stabilized, reproducible and representative gene expression profiles faithfully representing the transcriptional profiles of the constituent blood cell types present in the circulation. Given the increasing innovation in this field in recent years, we investigated a combination of methodological advances in both RNA stabilisation and microarray probe generation with the goal of achieving robust, reliable and representative transcriptional profiles from whole blood. To assess the whole blood profiles, the transcriptomes of purified blood cell types were measured and compared with the global transcriptomes measured in whole blood. The results demonstrate that a combination of PAXgene™ RNA stabilising technology and single-stranded cDNA probe generation afforded by the NuGEN Ovation RNA amplification system V2™ enables an approach that yields faithful representation of specific hematopoietic cell lineage transcriptomes in whole blood without the necessity for prior sample fractionation, cell enrichment or globin reduction. Storage stability assessments of the PAXgene™ blood samples also advocate a short, fixed room temperature storage time for all PAXgene™ blood samples collected for the purposes of global transcriptional profiling in clinical studies. PMID:19578521

  3. The detection and differentiation of canine respiratory pathogens using oligonucleotide microarrays.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Lih-Chiann; Kuo, Ya-Ting; Chueh, Ling-Ling; Huang, Dean; Lin, Jiunn-Horng

    2017-05-01

    Canine respiratory diseases are commonly seen in dogs along with co-infections with multiple respiratory pathogens, including viruses and bacteria. Virus infections in even vaccinated dogs were also reported. The clinical signs caused by different respiratory etiological agents are similar, which makes differential diagnosis imperative. An oligonucleotide microarray system was developed in this study. The wild type and vaccine strains of canine distemper virus (CDV), influenza virus, canine herpesvirus (CHV), Bordetella bronchiseptica and Mycoplasma cynos were detected and differentiated simultaneously on a microarray chip. The detection limit is 10, 10, 100, 50 and 50 copy numbers for CDV, influenza virus, CHV, B. bronchiseptica and M. cynos, respectively. The clinical test results of nasal swab samples showed that the microarray had remarkably better efficacy than the multiplex PCR-agarose gel method. The positive detection rate of microarray and agarose gel was 59.0% (n=33) and 41.1% (n=23) among the 56 samples, respectively. CDV vaccine strain and pathogen co-infections were further demonstrated by the microarray but not by the multiplex PCR-agarose gel. The oligonucleotide microarray provides a highly efficient diagnosis alternative that could be applied to clinical usage, greatly assisting in disease therapy and control. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  4. Investigation of archived formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded pancreatic tissue with whole-genome gene expression microarray

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Michelsen, Nete Vinstrup; Brusgaard, Klaus; Tan, Qihua

    2011-01-01

    The use of formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissue overcomes the most prominent issues related to research on relatively rare diseases: limited sample size, availability of control tissue, and time frame. The use of FFPE pancreatic tissue in GEM may be especially challenging due to its very...

  5. Detecting imbalanced expression of SNP alleles by minisequencing on microarrays

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    Dahlgren Andreas

    2004-10-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Each of the human genes or transcriptional units is likely to contain single nucleotide polymorphisms that may give rise to sequence variation between individuals and tissues on the level of RNA. Based on recent studies, differential expression of the two alleles of heterozygous coding single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs may be frequent for human genes. Methods with high accuracy to be used in a high throughput setting are needed for systematic surveys of expressed sequence variation. In this study we evaluated two formats of multiplexed, microarray based minisequencing for quantitative detection of imbalanced expression of SNP alleles. We used a panel of ten SNPs located in five genes known to be expressed in two endothelial cell lines as our model system. Results The accuracy and sensitivity of quantitative detection of allelic imbalance was assessed for each SNP by constructing regression lines using a dilution series of mixed samples from individuals of different genotype. Accurate quantification of SNP alleles by both assay formats was evidenced for by R2 values > 0.95 for the majority of the regression lines. According to a two sample t-test, we were able to distinguish 1–9% of a minority SNP allele from a homozygous genotype, with larger variation between SNPs than between assay formats. Six of the SNPs, heterozygous in either of the two cell lines, were genotyped in RNA extracted from the endothelial cells. The coefficient of variation between the fluorescent signals from five parallel reactions was similar for cDNA and genomic DNA. The fluorescence signal intensity ratios measured in the cDNA samples were compared to those in genomic DNA to determine the relative expression levels of the two alleles of each SNP. Four of the six SNPs tested displayed a higher than 1.4-fold difference in allelic ratios between cDNA and genomic DNA. The results were verified by allele-specific oligonucleotide hybridisation and

  6. Previously unidentified changes in renal cell carcinoma gene expression identified by parametric analysis of microarray data

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lenburg, Marc E; Liou, Louis S; Gerry, Norman P; Frampton, Garrett M; Cohen, Herbert T; Christman, Michael F

    2003-01-01

    Renal cell carcinoma is a common malignancy that often presents as a metastatic-disease for which there are no effective treatments. To gain insights into the mechanism of renal cell carcinogenesis, a number of genome-wide expression profiling studies have been performed. Surprisingly, there is very poor agreement among these studies as to which genes are differentially regulated. To better understand this lack of agreement we profiled renal cell tumor gene expression using genome-wide microarrays (45,000 probe sets) and compare our analysis to previous microarray studies. We hybridized total RNA isolated from renal cell tumors and adjacent normal tissue to Affymetrix U133A and U133B arrays. We removed samples with technical defects and removed probesets that failed to exhibit sequence-specific hybridization in any of the samples. We detected differential gene expression in the resulting dataset with parametric methods and identified keywords that are overrepresented in the differentially expressed genes with the Fisher-exact test. We identify 1,234 genes that are more than three-fold changed in renal tumors by t-test, 800 of which have not been previously reported to be altered in renal cell tumors. Of the only 37 genes that have been identified as being differentially expressed in three or more of five previous microarray studies of renal tumor gene expression, our analysis finds 33 of these genes (89%). A key to the sensitivity and power of our analysis is filtering out defective samples and genes that are not reliably detected. The widespread use of sample-wise voting schemes for detecting differential expression that do not control for false positives likely account for the poor overlap among previous studies. Among the many genes we identified using parametric methods that were not previously reported as being differentially expressed in renal cell tumors are several oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes that likely play important roles in renal cell

  7. Immunohistochemical analysis of breast tissue microarray images using contextual classifiers

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Stephen J McKenna

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available Background: Tissue microarrays (TMAs are an important tool in translational research for examining multiple cancers for molecular and protein markers. Automatic immunohistochemical (IHC scoring of breast TMA images remains a challenging problem. Methods: A two-stage approach that involves localization of regions of invasive and in-situ carcinoma followed by ordinal IHC scoring of nuclei in these regions is proposed. The localization stage classifies locations on a grid as tumor or non-tumor based on local image features. These classifications are then refined using an auto-context algorithm called spin-context. Spin-context uses a series of classifiers to integrate image feature information with spatial context information in the form of estimated class probabilities. This is achieved in a rotationally-invariant manner. The second stage estimates ordinal IHC scores in terms of the strength of staining and the proportion of nuclei stained. These estimates take the form of posterior probabilities, enabling images with uncertain scores to be referred for pathologist review. Results: The method was validated against manual pathologist scoring on two nuclear markers, progesterone receptor (PR and estrogen receptor (ER. Errors for PR data were consistently lower than those achieved with ER data. Scoring was in terms of estimated proportion of cells that were positively stained (scored on an ordinal scale of 0-6 and perceived strength of staining (scored on an ordinal scale of 0-3. Average absolute differences between predicted scores and pathologist-assigned scores were 0.74 for proportion of cells and 0.35 for strength of staining (PR. Conclusions: The use of context information via spin-context improved the precision and recall of tumor localization. The combination of the spin-context localization method with the automated scoring method resulted in reduced IHC scoring errors.

  8. BASE - 2nd generation software for microarray data management and analysis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nordborg Nicklas

    2009-10-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Microarray experiments are increasing in size and samples are collected asynchronously over long time. Available data are re-analysed as more samples are hybridized. Systematic use of collected data requires tracking of biomaterials, array information, raw data, and assembly of annotations. To meet the information tracking and data analysis challenges in microarray experiments we reimplemented and improved BASE version 1.2. Results The new BASE presented in this report is a comprehensive annotable local microarray data repository and analysis application providing researchers with an efficient information management and analysis tool. The information management system tracks all material from biosource, via sample and through extraction and labelling to raw data and analysis. All items in BASE can be annotated and the annotations can be used as experimental factors in downstream analysis. BASE stores all microarray experiment related data regardless if analysis tools for specific techniques or data formats are readily available. The BASE team is committed to continue improving and extending BASE to make it usable for even more experimental setups and techniques, and we encourage other groups to target their specific needs leveraging on the infrastructure provided by BASE. Conclusion BASE is a comprehensive management application for information, data, and analysis of microarray experiments, available as free open source software at http://base.thep.lu.se under the terms of the GPLv3 license.

  9. BASE--2nd generation software for microarray data management and analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vallon-Christersson, Johan; Nordborg, Nicklas; Svensson, Martin; Häkkinen, Jari

    2009-10-12

    Microarray experiments are increasing in size and samples are collected asynchronously over long time. Available data are re-analysed as more samples are hybridized. Systematic use of collected data requires tracking of biomaterials, array information, raw data, and assembly of annotations. To meet the information tracking and data analysis challenges in microarray experiments we reimplemented and improved BASE version 1.2. The new BASE presented in this report is a comprehensive annotable local microarray data repository and analysis application providing researchers with an efficient information management and analysis tool. The information management system tracks all material from biosource, via sample and through extraction and labelling to raw data and analysis. All items in BASE can be annotated and the annotations can be used as experimental factors in downstream analysis. BASE stores all microarray experiment related data regardless if analysis tools for specific techniques or data formats are readily available. The BASE team is committed to continue improving and extending BASE to make it usable for even more experimental setups and techniques, and we encourage other groups to target their specific needs leveraging on the infrastructure provided by BASE. BASE is a comprehensive management application for information, data, and analysis of microarray experiments, available as free open source software at http://base.thep.lu.se under the terms of the GPLv3 license.

  10. Hematopoietic Lineage Transcriptome Stability and Representation in PAXgeneTM Collected Peripheral Blood Utilising SPIA Single-Stranded cDNA Probes for Microarray

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Laura Kennedy

    2008-01-01

    Full Text Available Peripheral blood as a surrogate tissue for transcriptome profiling holds great promise for the discovery of diagnostic and prognostic disease biomarkers, particularly when target tissues of disease are not readily available. To maximize the reliability of gene expression data generated from clinical blood samples, both the sample collection and the microarray probe generation methods should be optimized to provide stabilized, reproducible and representative gene expression profiles faithfully representing the transcriptional profiles of the constituent blood cell types present in the circulation. Given the increasing innovation in this field in recent years, we investigated a combination of methodological advances in both RNA stabilisation and microarray probe generation with the goal of achieving robust, reliable and representative transcriptional profiles from whole blood. To assess the whole blood profiles, the transcriptomes of purified blood cell types were measured and compared with the global transcriptomes measured in whole blood. The results demonstrate that a combination of PAXgeneTM RNA stabilising technology and single-stranded cDNA probe generation afforded by the NuGEN Ovation RNA amplification system V2TM enables an approach that yields faithful representation of specific hematopoietic cell lineage transcriptomes in whole blood without the necessity for prior sample fractionation, cell enrichment or globin reduction. Storage stability assessments of the PAXgeneTM blood samples also advocate a short, fixed room temperature storage time for all PAXgeneTM blood samples collected for the purposes of global transcriptional profiling in clinical studies.

  11. Microarray analysis in clinical oncology: pre-clinical optimization using needle core biopsies from xenograft tumors

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Goley, Elizabeth M; Anderson, Soni J; Ménard, Cynthia; Chuang, Eric; Lü, Xing; Tofilon, Philip J; Camphausen, Kevin

    2004-01-01

    DNA microarray profiling performed on clinical tissue specimens can potentially provide significant information regarding human cancer biology. Biopsy cores, the typical source of human tumor tissue, however, generally provide very small amounts of RNA (0.3–15 μg). RNA amplification is a common method used to increase the amount of material available for hybridization experiments. Using human xenograft tissue, we sought to address the following three questions: 1) is amplified RNA representative of the original RNA profile? 2) what is the minimum amount of total RNA required to perform a representative amplification? 3) are the direct and indirect methods of labeling the hybridization probe equivalent? Total RNA was extracted from human xenograft tissue and amplified using a linear amplification process. RNA was labeled and hybridized, and the resulting images yielded data that was extracted into two categories using the mAdb system: 'all genes' and 'outliers'. Scatter plots were generated for each slide and Pearson Coefficients of correlation were obtained. Results show that the amplification of 5 μg of total RNA yields a Pearson Correlation Coefficient of 0.752 (N = 6,987 genes) between the amplified and total RNA samples. We subsequently determined that amplification of 0.5 μg of total RNA generated a similar Pearson Correlation Coefficient as compared to the corresponding original RNA sample. Similarly, sixty-nine percent of total RNA outliers were detected with 5 μg of amplified starting RNA, and 55% of outliers were detected with 0.5 μg of starting RNA. However, amplification of 0.05 μg of starting RNA resulted in a loss of fidelity (Pearson Coefficient 0.669 between amplified and original samples, 44% outlier concordance). In these studies the direct or indirect methods of probe labeling yielded similar results. Finally, we examined whether RNA obtained from needle core biopsies of human tumor xenografts, amplified and indirectly

  12. How the RNA isolation method can affect microRNA microarray results

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Podolska, Agnieszka; Kaczkowski, Bogumil; Litman, Thomas

    2011-01-01

    RNA microarray analysis on porcine brain tissue. One method is a phenol-guanidine isothiocyanate-based procedure that permits isolation of total RNA. The second method, miRVana™ microRNA isolation, is column based and recovers the small RNA fraction alone. We found that microarray analyses give different results...... that depend on the RNA fraction used, in particular because some microRNAs appear very sensitive to the RNA isolation method. We conclude that precautions need to be taken when comparing microarray studies based on RNA isolated with different methods.......The quality of RNA is crucial in gene expression experiments. RNA degradation interferes in the measurement of gene expression, and in this context, microRNA quantification can lead to an incorrect estimation. In the present study, two different RNA isolation methods were used to perform micro...

  13. Design and evaluation of Actichip, a thematic microarray for the study of the actin cytoskeleton

    Science.gov (United States)

    Muller, Jean; Mehlen, André; Vetter, Guillaume; Yatskou, Mikalai; Muller, Arnaud; Chalmel, Frédéric; Poch, Olivier; Friederich, Evelyne; Vallar, Laurent

    2007-01-01

    Background The actin cytoskeleton plays a crucial role in supporting and regulating numerous cellular processes. Mutations or alterations in the expression levels affecting the actin cytoskeleton system or related regulatory mechanisms are often associated with complex diseases such as cancer. Understanding how qualitative or quantitative changes in expression of the set of actin cytoskeleton genes are integrated to control actin dynamics and organisation is currently a challenge and should provide insights in identifying potential targets for drug discovery. Here we report the development of a dedicated microarray, the Actichip, containing 60-mer oligonucleotide probes for 327 genes selected for transcriptome analysis of the human actin cytoskeleton. Results Genomic data and sequence analysis features were retrieved from GenBank and stored in an integrative database called Actinome. From these data, probes were designed using a home-made program (CADO4MI) allowing sequence refinement and improved probe specificity by combining the complementary information recovered from the UniGene and RefSeq databases. Actichip performance was analysed by hybridisation with RNAs extracted from epithelial MCF-7 cells and human skeletal muscle. Using thoroughly standardised procedures, we obtained microarray images with excellent quality resulting in high data reproducibility. Actichip displayed a large dynamic range extending over three logs with a limit of sensitivity between one and ten copies of transcript per cell. The array allowed accurate detection of small changes in gene expression and reliable classification of samples based on the expression profiles of tissue-specific genes. When compared to two other oligonucleotide microarray platforms, Actichip showed similar sensitivity and concordant expression ratios. Moreover, Actichip was able to discriminate the highly similar actin isoforms whereas the two other platforms did not. Conclusion Our data demonstrate that

  14. Exploiting fluorescence for multiplex immunoassays on protein microarrays

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Herbáth, Melinda; Balogh, Andrea; Matkó, János; Papp, Krisztián; Prechl, József

    2014-01-01

    Protein microarray technology is becoming the method of choice for identifying protein interaction partners, detecting specific proteins, carbohydrates and lipids, or for characterizing protein interactions and serum antibodies in a massively parallel manner. Availability of the well-established instrumentation of DNA arrays and development of new fluorescent detection instruments promoted the spread of this technique. Fluorescent detection has the advantage of high sensitivity, specificity, simplicity and wide dynamic range required by most measurements. Fluorescence through specifically designed probes and an increasing variety of detection modes offers an excellent tool for such microarray platforms. Measuring for example the level of antibodies, their isotypes and/or antigen specificity simultaneously can offer more complex and comprehensive information about the investigated biological phenomenon, especially if we take into consideration that hundreds of samples can be measured in a single assay. Not only body fluids, but also cell lysates, extracted cellular components, and intact living cells can be analyzed on protein arrays for monitoring functional responses to printed samples on the surface. As a rapidly evolving area, protein microarray technology offers a great bulk of information and new depth of knowledge. These are the features that endow protein arrays with wide applicability and robust sample analyzing capability. On the whole, protein arrays are emerging new tools not just in proteomics, but glycomics, lipidomics, and are also important for immunological research. In this review we attempt to summarize the technical aspects of planar fluorescent microarray technology along with the description of its main immunological applications. (topical review)

  15. Bright-field in situ hybridization for HER2 gene amplification in breast cancer using tissue microarrays: correlation between chromogenic (CISH) and automated silver-enhanced (SISH) methods with patient outcome.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Francis, Glenn D; Jones, Mark A; Beadle, Geoffrey F; Stein, Sandra R

    2009-06-01

    HER2 gene amplification or overexpression occurs in 15% to 25% of breast cancers and has implications for treatment and prognosis. The most commonly used methods for HER2 testing are fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) and immunohistochemistry. FISH is considered to be the reference standard and more accurately predicts response to trastuzumab, but is technically demanding, expensive, and requires specialized equipment. In situ hybridization is required to be eligible for adjuvant treatment with trastuzumab in Australia. Bright-field in situ hybridization is an alternative to FISH and uses a combination of in situ methodology and a peroxidase-mediated chromogenic substrate such as diaminobenzidine [chromogenic in situ hybridization (CISH)] or multimer technology coupled with enzyme metallography [silver-enhanced in situ hybridization (SISH)] to create a marker visible under bright-field microscopy. CISH was introduced into diagnostic testing in Australia in October 2006. SISH methodology is a more recent introduction into the testing repertoire. An evaluation of CISH and SISH performance to assess patient outcome were performed using tissue microarrays. Tissue microarrays were constructed in duplicate using material from 593 patients with invasive breast carcinoma and assessed using CISH and SISH. Gene amplification was assessed using the American Society of Clinical Oncology/College of American Pathologists guideline and Australian HER2 Advisory Board criteria (single probe: diploid, 1 to 2.5 copies/nucleus; polysomy >2.5 to 4 copies/nucleus; equivocal, >4 to 6 copies/nucleus; low-level amplification, >6 to 10 copies/nucleus and high-level amplification >10 copies/nucleus; dual probe HER2/CHR17 ratio: nonamplified 2.2). Results were informative for 337 tissue cores comprising 230 patient samples. Concordance rates were 96% for HER2 single probe CISH and SISH and 95.5% for single probe CISH and dual probe HER2/CHR17 SISH. Both bright-field methods correlated

  16. DNA microarray technique for detecting food-borne pathogens

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    Xing GAO

    2012-08-01

    Full Text Available Objective To study the application of DNA microarray technique for screening and identifying multiple food-borne pathogens. Methods The oligonucleotide probes were designed by Clustal X and Oligo 6.0 at the conserved regions of specific genes of multiple food-borne pathogens, and then were validated by bioinformatic analyses. The 5' end of each probe was modified by amino-group and 10 Poly-T, and the optimized probes were synthesized and spotted on aldehyde-coated slides. The bacteria DNA template incubated with Klenow enzyme was amplified by arbitrarily primed PCR, and PCR products incorporated into Aminoallyl-dUTP were coupled with fluorescent dye. After hybridization of the purified PCR products with DNA microarray, the hybridization image and fluorescence intensity analysis was acquired by ScanArray and GenePix Pro 5.1 software. A series of detection conditions such as arbitrarily primed PCR and microarray hybridization were optimized. The specificity of this approach was evaluated by 16 different bacteria DNA, and the sensitivity and reproducibility were verified by 4 food-borne pathogens DNA. The samples of multiple bacteria DNA and simulated water samples of Shigella dysenteriae were detected. Results Nine different food-borne bacteria were successfully discriminated under the same condition. The sensitivity of genomic DNA was 102 -103pg/ μl, and the coefficient of variation (CV of the reproducibility of assay was less than 15%. The corresponding specific hybridization maps of the multiple bacteria DNA samples were obtained, and the detection limit of simulated water sample of Shigella dysenteriae was 3.54×105cfu/ml. Conclusions The DNA microarray detection system based on arbitrarily primed PCR can be employed for effective detection of multiple food-borne pathogens, and this assay may offer a new method for high-throughput platform for detecting bacteria.

  17. Detection of EGFR and COX-2 Expression by Immunohistochemical Method on a Tissue Microarray Section in Lung Cancer and Biological Significance

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    Xinyun WANG

    2010-02-01

    Full Text Available Background and objective Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2, which can regulate growth, invasion and metastasis of tumor through relevant signaling pathway, have been detected in a variety of solid tumors. The aim of this study is to investigate the biological significance of EGFR and COX-2 expression in lung cancer and the relationship between them. Methods The expression of EGFR and COX-2 was detected in 89 primary lung cancer tissues, 12 premaliganant lesions, 12 lymph node metastases, and 10 normal lung tissues as the control by immunohistochemical method on a tissue microarray section. Results EGFR protein was detectable in 59.6%, 41.7%, and 66.7% of primary lung cancer tissues, premalignant lesions and lymph node metastases, respectively; COX-2 protein was detectable in 52.8%, 41.7%, and 66.7% of primary lung cancer tissues, premalignant lesions and lymph node metastases, respectively, which were significantly higher than those of the control (P 0.05. COX-2 expression was related to gross type (P < 0.05. A highly positive correlation was observed between EGFR and COX-2 expression (P < 0.01. Conclusion Overexpression of EGFR and COX-2 may play an important role in the tumorgenesis, progression and malignancy of lung cancer. Detection of EGFR and COX-2 expression might be helpful to diagnosis and prognosis of lung cancer.

  18. Microarray Expression Profile of Circular RNAs in Heart Tissue of Mice with Myocardial Infarction-Induced Heart Failure

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    Hong-Jin Wu

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available Background/Aims: Myocardial infarction (MI is a serious complication of atherosclerosis associated with increasing mortality attributable to heart failure. This study is aimed to assess the global changes in and characteristics of the transcriptome of circular RNAs (circRNAs in heart tissue during MI induced heart failure (HF. Methods: Using a post-myocardial infarction (MI model of HF in mice, we applied microarray assay to examine the transcriptome of circRNAs deregulated in the heart during HF. We confirmed the changes in circRNAs by quantitative PCR. Results: We revealed and confirmed a number of circRNAs that were deregulated during HF, which suggests a potential role of circRNAs in HF. Conclusions: The distinct expression patterns of circulatory circRNAs during HF indicate that circRNAs may actively respond to stress and thus serve as biomarkers of HF diagnosis and treatment.

  19. DNA microarray data and contextual analysis of correlation graphs

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    Hingamp Pascal

    2003-04-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background DNA microarrays are used to produce large sets of expression measurements from which specific biological information is sought. Their analysis requires efficient and reliable algorithms for dimensional reduction, classification and annotation. Results We study networks of co-expressed genes obtained from DNA microarray experiments. The mathematical concept of curvature on graphs is used to group genes or samples into clusters to which relevant gene or sample annotations are automatically assigned. Application to publicly available yeast and human lymphoma data demonstrates the reliability of the method in spite of its simplicity, especially with respect to the small number of parameters involved. Conclusions We provide a method for automatically determining relevant gene clusters among the many genes monitored with microarrays. The automatic annotations and the graphical interface improve the readability of the data. A C++ implementation, called Trixy, is available from http://tagc.univ-mrs.fr/bioinformatics/trixy.html.

  20. Increased Inhibitor of Differentiation 4 (Id4 Expression in Glioblastoma: A Tissue Microarray Study

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Weifin Zeng, Elisabeth J. Rushing, Daniel P. Hartmann, Norio Azumi

    2010-01-01

    Full Text Available Background: The inhibitor of differentiation/DNA binding protein family (Id1-4 is involved in cell cycle control, tumorigenesis and angiogenesis through the negative regulation of helix-loop-helix transcription factors. Of these proteins, Id4 is known to play an important role in neural stem cell differentiation, and deregulation has been implicated in glial neoplasia. However, the expression and significance of Id4 in astrocytomas has not been fully addressed. Herein we report the differential expression of Id4 in astrocytomas of various grades using tissue microarrays (TMA and immunohistochemistry (IHC. Design: The GBM TMA was constructed from 53 archival cases at Georgetown University Hospital and a TMA with normal brain controls and grades II-III astrocytoma was obtained from Cybrdi (Rockville, MD. TMA sections were stained with Id4 antibody and the slides were scored according to the percentage of staining astrocytic nuclei (<9% -, 10-50% +, >51% ++. The Fisher Exact test was used to test for statistical significance. Results: Nuclear staining for Id4 was seen in 73.58% GBMs, 25% grade III, and 12.5% grade II astrocytomas; staining was absent in normal brain tissue. There was a statistically significant difference between GBM and grades II, III astrocytoma (p <0.01. Significant Id4 expression was not detected in normal brain. Conclusions: Our study confirms the frequent upregulation of Id4 expression in GBM, which lends support to its role in tumorigenesis, possibly in the transformation of low to high-grade astrocytoma (i.e. GBM. Further studies are warranted to determine the precise role of Id4 in glial neoplasia and its potential use in targeted therapy for GBM.

  1. Shared probe design and existing microarray reanalysis using PICKY

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    Chou Hui-Hsien

    2010-04-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Large genomes contain families of highly similar genes that cannot be individually identified by microarray probes. This limitation is due to thermodynamic restrictions and cannot be resolved by any computational method. Since gene annotations are updated more frequently than microarrays, another common issue facing microarray users is that existing microarrays must be routinely reanalyzed to determine probes that are still useful with respect to the updated annotations. Results PICKY 2.0 can design shared probes for sets of genes that cannot be individually identified using unique probes. PICKY 2.0 uses novel algorithms to track sharable regions among genes and to strictly distinguish them from other highly similar but nontarget regions during thermodynamic comparisons. Therefore, PICKY does not sacrifice the quality of shared probes when choosing them. The latest PICKY 2.1 includes the new capability to reanalyze existing microarray probes against updated gene sets to determine probes that are still valid to use. In addition, more precise nonlinear salt effect estimates and other improvements are added, making PICKY 2.1 more versatile to microarray users. Conclusions Shared probes allow expressed gene family members to be detected; this capability is generally more desirable than not knowing anything about these genes. Shared probes also enable the design of cross-genome microarrays, which facilitate multiple species identification in environmental samples. The new nonlinear salt effect calculation significantly increases the precision of probes at a lower buffer salt concentration, and the probe reanalysis function improves existing microarray result interpretations.

  2. Emerging use of gene expression microarrays in plant physiology.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wullschleger, Stan D; Difazio, Stephen P

    2003-01-01

    Microarrays have become an important technology for the global analysis of gene expression in humans, animals, plants, and microbes. Implemented in the context of a well-designed experiment, cDNA and oligonucleotide arrays can provide highthroughput, simultaneous analysis of transcript abundance for hundreds, if not thousands, of genes. However, despite widespread acceptance, the use of microarrays as a tool to better understand processes of interest to the plant physiologist is still being explored. To help illustrate current uses of microarrays in the plant sciences, several case studies that we believe demonstrate the emerging application of gene expression arrays in plant physiology were selected from among the many posters and presentations at the 2003 Plant and Animal Genome XI Conference. Based on this survey, microarrays are being used to assess gene expression in plants exposed to the experimental manipulation of air temperature, soil water content and aluminium concentration in the root zone. Analysis often includes characterizing transcript profiles for multiple post-treatment sampling periods and categorizing genes with common patterns of response using hierarchical clustering techniques. In addition, microarrays are also providing insights into developmental changes in gene expression associated with fibre and root elongation in cotton and maize, respectively. Technical and analytical limitations of microarrays are discussed and projects attempting to advance areas of microarray design and data analysis are highlighted. Finally, although much work remains, we conclude that microarrays are a valuable tool for the plant physiologist interested in the characterization and identification of individual genes and gene families with potential application in the fields of agriculture, horticulture and forestry.

  3. Construction of a tissue microarray with two millimeters cores of endometrioid endometrial cancer: factors affecting the quality of the recipient block.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gottwald, L; Sęk, P; Piekarski, J; Pasz-Walczak, G; Kubiak, R; Szwalski, J; Spych, M; Suzin, J; Tyliński, W; Topczewska-Tylinska, K; Jeziorski, A

    2012-11-01

    The tissue microarray (TMA) method currently is not used to render a primary diagnosis of cancer, but its scientific value has been proved in studies of various cancer types. TMA technology still is not used often for uterine tumors, however. We investigated the repeatability of histological diagnosis of endometrioid endometrial cancer (EEC) using conventional histology and TMA using 2 mm cores. We examined EEC tissues from 171 patients. Formalin fixed, paraffin embedded tissue donor blocks from EEC specimens were selected and examined histologically. Duplicate 2 mm tissue cores were inserted into a TMA recipient block. EEC tissues were examined as hematoxylin-eosin stained sections from the TMAs. EEC tissue was identified in the TMAs in 158 cases (92.4%) and not found in 13 cases (7.6%). On the TMA slides, both EEC positive cores were identified in 129 cases (75.4%), but only one core in 29 cases (17.0%). Among 342 biopsies of the donor blocks (each case in duplicate), EEC was found in 287 cases (83.9%) using the TMA: 124/146 (84.9%) with superficial infiltration, 153/178 (86.0%) with deep myometrial infiltration, and 10/18 (55.6%) without myometrial infiltration. We concluded that two 2 mm tissue cores from a biopsy of a donor block inserted into a TMA recipient block were sufficient to diagnose EEC in more than 90% of cases. EEC was identified in the TMAs with similar frequency with respect to superficial and deep myometrial infiltration. Cases without myometrial infiltration were identified less often.

  4. Fuzzy support vector machine for microarray imbalanced data classification

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ladayya, Faroh; Purnami, Santi Wulan; Irhamah

    2017-11-01

    DNA microarrays are data containing gene expression with small sample sizes and high number of features. Furthermore, imbalanced classes is a common problem in microarray data. This occurs when a dataset is dominated by a class which have significantly more instances than the other minority classes. Therefore, it is needed a classification method that solve the problem of high dimensional and imbalanced data. Support Vector Machine (SVM) is one of the classification methods that is capable of handling large or small samples, nonlinear, high dimensional, over learning and local minimum issues. SVM has been widely applied to DNA microarray data classification and it has been shown that SVM provides the best performance among other machine learning methods. However, imbalanced data will be a problem because SVM treats all samples in the same importance thus the results is bias for minority class. To overcome the imbalanced data, Fuzzy SVM (FSVM) is proposed. This method apply a fuzzy membership to each input point and reformulate the SVM such that different input points provide different contributions to the classifier. The minority classes have large fuzzy membership so FSVM can pay more attention to the samples with larger fuzzy membership. Given DNA microarray data is a high dimensional data with a very large number of features, it is necessary to do feature selection first using Fast Correlation based Filter (FCBF). In this study will be analyzed by SVM, FSVM and both methods by applying FCBF and get the classification performance of them. Based on the overall results, FSVM on selected features has the best classification performance compared to SVM.

  5. Cross-platform comparison of microarray data using order restricted inference

    Science.gov (United States)

    Klinglmueller, Florian; Tuechler, Thomas; Posch, Martin

    2013-01-01

    Motivation Titration experiments measuring the gene expression from two different tissues, along with total RNA mixtures of the pure samples, are frequently used for quality evaluation of microarray technologies. Such a design implies that the true mRNA expression of each gene, is either constant or follows a monotonic trend between the mixtures, applying itself to the use of order restricted inference procedures. Exploiting only the postulated monotonicity of titration designs, we propose three statistical analysis methods for the validation of high-throughput genetic data and corresponding preprocessing techniques. Results Our methods allow for inference of accuracy, repeatability and cross-platform agreement, with minimal required assumptions regarding the underlying data generating process. Therefore, they are readily applicable to all sorts of genetic high-throughput data independent of the degree of preprocessing. An application to the EMERALD dataset was used to demonstrate how our methods provide a rich spectrum of easily interpretable quality metrics and allow the comparison of different microarray technologies and normalization methods. The results are on par with previous work, but provide additional new insights that cast doubt on the utility of popular preprocessing techniques, specifically concerning the EMERALD projects dataset. Availability All datasets are available on EBI’s ArrayExpress web site (http://www.ebi.ac.uk/microarray-as/ae/) under accession numbers E-TABM-536, E-TABM-554 and E-TABM-555. Source code implemented in C and R is available at: http://statistics.msi.meduniwien.ac.at/float/cross_platform/. Methods for testing and variance decomposition have been made available in the R-package orQA, which can be downloaded and installed from CRAN http://cran.r-project.org. PMID:21317143

  6. Development and application of a microarray meter tool to optimize microarray experiments

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    Rouse Richard JD

    2008-07-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Successful microarray experimentation requires a complex interplay between the slide chemistry, the printing pins, the nucleic acid probes and targets, and the hybridization milieu. Optimization of these parameters and a careful evaluation of emerging slide chemistries are a prerequisite to any large scale array fabrication effort. We have developed a 'microarray meter' tool which assesses the inherent variations associated with microarray measurement prior to embarking on large scale projects. Findings The microarray meter consists of nucleic acid targets (reference and dynamic range control and probe components. Different plate designs containing identical probe material were formulated to accommodate different robotic and pin designs. We examined the variability in probe quality and quantity (as judged by the amount of DNA printed and remaining post-hybridization using three robots equipped with capillary printing pins. Discussion The generation of microarray data with minimal variation requires consistent quality control of the (DNA microarray manufacturing and experimental processes. Spot reproducibility is a measure primarily of the variations associated with printing. The microarray meter assesses array quality by measuring the DNA content for every feature. It provides a post-hybridization analysis of array quality by scoring probe performance using three metrics, a a measure of variability in the signal intensities, b a measure of the signal dynamic range and c a measure of variability of the spot morphologies.

  7. A new classification method for MALDI imaging mass spectrometry data acquired on formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissue samples.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Boskamp, Tobias; Lachmund, Delf; Oetjen, Janina; Cordero Hernandez, Yovany; Trede, Dennis; Maass, Peter; Casadonte, Rita; Kriegsmann, Jörg; Warth, Arne; Dienemann, Hendrik; Weichert, Wilko; Kriegsmann, Mark

    2017-07-01

    Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization imaging mass spectrometry (MALDI IMS) shows a high potential for applications in histopathological diagnosis, and in particular for supporting tumor typing and subtyping. The development of such applications requires the extraction of spectral fingerprints that are relevant for the given tissue and the identification of biomarkers associated with these spectral patterns. We propose a novel data analysis method based on the extraction of characteristic spectral patterns (CSPs) that allow automated generation of classification models for spectral data. Formalin-fixed paraffin embedded (FFPE) tissue samples from N=445 patients assembled on 12 tissue microarrays were analyzed. The method was applied to discriminate primary lung and pancreatic cancer, as well as adenocarcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma of the lung. A classification accuracy of 100% and 82.8%, resp., could be achieved on core level, assessed by cross-validation. The method outperformed the more conventional classification method based on the extraction of individual m/z values in the first application, while achieving a comparable accuracy in the second. LC-MS/MS peptide identification demonstrated that the spectral features present in selected CSPs correspond to peptides relevant for the respective classification. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: MALDI Imaging, edited by Dr. Corinna Henkel and Prof. Peter Hoffmann. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  8. Technical note: Alternatives to reduce adipose tissue sampling bias.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cruz, G D; Wang, Y; Fadel, J G

    2014-10-01

    Understanding the mechanisms by which nutritional and pharmaceutical factors can manipulate adipose tissue growth and development in production animals has direct and indirect effects in the profitability of an enterprise. Adipocyte cellularity (number and size) is a key biological response that is commonly measured in animal science research. The variability and sampling of adipocyte cellularity within a muscle has been addressed in previous studies, but no attempt to critically investigate these issues has been proposed in the literature. The present study evaluated 2 sampling techniques (random and systematic) in an attempt to minimize sampling bias and to determine the minimum number of samples from 1 to 15 needed to represent the overall adipose tissue in the muscle. Both sampling procedures were applied on adipose tissue samples dissected from 30 longissimus muscles from cattle finished either on grass or grain. Briefly, adipose tissue samples were fixed with osmium tetroxide, and size and number of adipocytes were determined by a Coulter Counter. These results were then fit in a finite mixture model to obtain distribution parameters of each sample. To evaluate the benefits of increasing number of samples and the advantage of the new sampling technique, the concept of acceptance ratio was used; simply stated, the higher the acceptance ratio, the better the representation of the overall population. As expected, a great improvement on the estimation of the overall adipocyte cellularity parameters was observed using both sampling techniques when sample size number increased from 1 to 15 samples, considering both techniques' acceptance ratio increased from approximately 3 to 25%. When comparing sampling techniques, the systematic procedure slightly improved parameters estimation. The results suggest that more detailed research using other sampling techniques may provide better estimates for minimum sampling.

  9. Comparison of diagnostic efficacy between CLE, tissue sampling, and CLE combined with tissue sampling for undetermined pancreaticobiliary strictures: a meta-analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gao, Ya-Dong; Qu, Ya-Wei; Liu, Hai-Feng

    2018-04-01

    The accurate diagnosis of undetermined pancreaticobiliary strictures remains challenging. Current ERCP-guided tissue sampling methods are of low sensitivity. Confocal laser endomicroscopy (CLE) is a new procedure and allows real optical biopsies that may improve the diagnosis of undetermined pancreaticobiliary strictures. The aim of this meta-analysis was to determine the diagnostic yield of CLE, tissue sampling, and CLE combined with tissue sampling for undetermined pancreaticobiliary strictures. Pubmed, Embase, and the Cochrane Library database were reviewed for relevant studies. Pooled estimates of sensitivity and specificity with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated using the random-effects meta-analysis model. The summary receiver-operating characteristic (SROC) curve was constructed, and the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) was calculated. Twelve studies involving 591 patients were enrolled in our analysis. The overall sensitivity and the specificity estimate of CLE for discriminating benign and malignant pancreaticobiliary strictures were 87% (95%CI, 83-91%) and 76% (95%CI, 70-81%), respectively. The AUC to assess the diagnostic efficacy was 0.8705. For tissue sampling, the overall sensitivity and the specificity estimate were 64% (95%CI, 57-70%) and 94% (95%CI, 90-97%), respectively. The AUC to assess the diagnostic efficacy was 0.8040. A combination of both methods increased the sensitivity (93%; 95%CI, 88-96%) with a specificity of 82% (95%CI, 74-89%). The AUC to assess the diagnostic efficacy was 0.9377. There was no publication bias by Deeks' Funnel Plot with p = .936. Compared with tissue sampling, CLE may increase the sensitivity for the diagnosis of malignant pancreaticobiliary strictures. A combination of both can effectively diagnose malignant pancreaticobiliary strictures.

  10. Microarray Я US: a user-friendly graphical interface to Bioconductor tools that enables accurate microarray data analysis and expedites comprehensive functional analysis of microarray results.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dai, Yilin; Guo, Ling; Li, Meng; Chen, Yi-Bu

    2012-06-08

    Microarray data analysis presents a significant challenge to researchers who are unable to use the powerful Bioconductor and its numerous tools due to their lack of knowledge of R language. Among the few existing software programs that offer a graphic user interface to Bioconductor packages, none have implemented a comprehensive strategy to address the accuracy and reliability issue of microarray data analysis due to the well known probe design problems associated with many widely used microarray chips. There is also a lack of tools that would expedite the functional analysis of microarray results. We present Microarray Я US, an R-based graphical user interface that implements over a dozen popular Bioconductor packages to offer researchers a streamlined workflow for routine differential microarray expression data analysis without the need to learn R language. In order to enable a more accurate analysis and interpretation of microarray data, we incorporated the latest custom probe re-definition and re-annotation for Affymetrix and Illumina chips. A versatile microarray results output utility tool was also implemented for easy and fast generation of input files for over 20 of the most widely used functional analysis software programs. Coupled with a well-designed user interface, Microarray Я US leverages cutting edge Bioconductor packages for researchers with no knowledge in R language. It also enables a more reliable and accurate microarray data analysis and expedites downstream functional analysis of microarray results.

  11. Classification across gene expression microarray studies

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    Kuner Ruprecht

    2009-12-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background The increasing number of gene expression microarray studies represents an important resource in biomedical research. As a result, gene expression based diagnosis has entered clinical practice for patient stratification in breast cancer. However, the integration and combined analysis of microarray studies remains still a challenge. We assessed the potential benefit of data integration on the classification accuracy and systematically evaluated the generalization performance of selected methods on four breast cancer studies comprising almost 1000 independent samples. To this end, we introduced an evaluation framework which aims to establish good statistical practice and a graphical way to monitor differences. The classification goal was to correctly predict estrogen receptor status (negative/positive and histological grade (low/high of each tumor sample in an independent study which was not used for the training. For the classification we chose support vector machines (SVM, predictive analysis of microarrays (PAM, random forest (RF and k-top scoring pairs (kTSP. Guided by considerations relevant for classification across studies we developed a generalization of kTSP which we evaluated in addition. Our derived version (DV aims to improve the robustness of the intrinsic invariance of kTSP with respect to technologies and preprocessing. Results For each individual study the generalization error was benchmarked via complete cross-validation and was found to be similar for all classification methods. The misclassification rates were substantially higher in classification across studies, when each single study was used as an independent test set while all remaining studies were combined for the training of the classifier. However, with increasing number of independent microarray studies used in the training, the overall classification performance improved. DV performed better than the average and showed slightly less variance. In

  12. Microarray BASICA: Background Adjustment, Segmentation, Image Compression and Analysis of Microarray Images

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    Jianping Hua

    2004-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper presents microarray BASICA: an integrated image processing tool for background adjustment, segmentation, image compression, and analysis of cDNA microarray images. BASICA uses a fast Mann-Whitney test-based algorithm to segment cDNA microarray images, and performs postprocessing to eliminate the segmentation irregularities. The segmentation results, along with the foreground and background intensities obtained with the background adjustment, are then used for independent compression of the foreground and background. We introduce a new distortion measurement for cDNA microarray image compression and devise a coding scheme by modifying the embedded block coding with optimized truncation (EBCOT algorithm (Taubman, 2000 to achieve optimal rate-distortion performance in lossy coding while still maintaining outstanding lossless compression performance. Experimental results show that the bit rate required to ensure sufficiently accurate gene expression measurement varies and depends on the quality of cDNA microarray images. For homogeneously hybridized cDNA microarray images, BASICA is able to provide from a bit rate as low as 5 bpp the gene expression data that are 99% in agreement with those of the original 32 bpp images.

  13. Interim report on updated microarray probes for the LLNL Burkholderia pseudomallei SNP array

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    Gardner, S; Jaing, C

    2012-03-27

    The overall goal of this project is to forensically characterize 100 unknown Burkholderia isolates in the US-Australia collaboration. We will identify genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) from B. pseudomallei and near neighbor species including B. mallei, B. thailandensis and B. oklahomensis. We will design microarray probes to detect these SNP markers and analyze 100 Burkholderia genomic DNAs extracted from environmental, clinical and near neighbor isolates from Australian collaborators on the Burkholderia SNP microarray. We will analyze the microarray genotyping results to characterize the genetic diversity of these new isolates and triage the samples for whole genome sequencing. In this interim report, we described the SNP analysis and the microarray probe design for the Burkholderia SNP microarray.

  14. Strategies for cell manipulation and skeletal tissue engineering using high-throughput polymer blend formulation and microarray techniques.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Khan, Ferdous; Tare, Rahul S; Kanczler, Janos M; Oreffo, Richard O C; Bradley, Mark

    2010-03-01

    A combination of high-throughput material formulation and microarray techniques were synergistically applied for the efficient analysis of the biological functionality of 135 binary polymer blends. This allowed the identification of cell-compatible biopolymers permissive for human skeletal stem cell growth in both in vitro and in vivo applications. The blended polymeric materials were developed from commercially available, inexpensive and well characterised biodegradable polymers, which on their own lacked both the structural requirements of a scaffold material and, critically, the ability to facilitate cell growth. Blends identified here proved excellent templates for cell attachment, and in addition, a number of blends displayed remarkable bone-like architecture and facilitated bone regeneration by providing 3D biomimetic scaffolds for skeletal cell growth and osteogenic differentiation. This study demonstrates a unique strategy to generate and identify innovative materials with widespread application in cell biology as well as offering a new reparative platform strategy applicable to skeletal tissues. Copyright (c) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  15. A Lateral Flow Protein Microarray for Rapid and Sensitive Antibody Assays

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    Helene Andersson-Svahn

    2011-11-01

    Full Text Available Protein microarrays are useful tools for highly multiplexed determination of presence or levels of clinically relevant biomarkers in human tissues and biofluids. However, such tools have thus far been restricted to laboratory environments. Here, we present a novel 384-plexed easy to use lateral flow protein microarray device capable of sensitive (< 30 ng/mL determination of antigen-specific antibodies in ten minutes of total assay time. Results were developed with gold nanobeads and could be recorded by a cell-phone camera or table top scanner. Excellent accuracy with an area under curve (AUC of 98% was achieved in comparison with an established glass microarray assay for 26 antigen-specific antibodies. We propose that the presented framework could find use in convenient and cost-efficient quality control of antibody production, as well as in providing a platform for multiplexed affinity-based assays in low-resource or mobile settings.

  16. Culture methods of allograft musculoskeletal tissue samples in Australian bacteriology laboratories.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Varettas, Kerry

    2013-12-01

    Samples of allograft musculoskeletal tissue are cultured by bacteriology laboratories to determine the presence of bacteria and fungi. In Australia, this testing is performed by 6 TGA-licensed clinical bacteriology laboratories with samples received from 10 tissue banks. Culture methods of swab and tissue samples employ a combination of solid agar and/or broth media to enhance micro-organism growth and maximise recovery. All six Australian laboratories receive Amies transport swabs and, except for one laboratory, a corresponding biopsy sample for testing. Three of the 6 laboratories culture at least one allograft sample directly onto solid agar. Only one laboratory did not use a broth culture for any sample received. An international literature review found that a similar combination of musculoskeletal tissue samples were cultured onto solid agar and/or broth media. Although variations of allograft musculoskeletal tissue samples, culture media and methods are used in Australian and international bacteriology laboratories, validation studies and method evaluations have challenged and supported their use in recovering fungi and aerobic and anaerobic bacteria.

  17. Emerging Use of Gene Expression Microarrays in Plant Physiology

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Stephen P. Difazio

    2006-04-01

    Full Text Available Microarrays have become an important technology for the global analysis of gene expression in humans, animals, plants, and microbes. Implemented in the context of a well-designed experiment, cDNA and oligonucleotide arrays can provide highthroughput, simultaneous analysis of transcript abundance for hundreds, if not thousands, of genes. However, despite widespread acceptance, the use of microarrays as a tool to better understand processes of interest to the plant physiologist is still being explored. To help illustrate current uses of microarrays in the plant sciences, several case studies that we believe demonstrate the emerging application of gene expression arrays in plant physiology were selected from among the many posters and presentations at the 2003 Plant and Animal Genome XI Conference. Based on this survey, microarrays are being used to assess gene expression in plants exposed to the experimental manipulation of air temperature, soil water content and aluminium concentration in the root zone. Analysis often includes characterizing transcript profiles for multiple post-treatment sampling periods and categorizing genes with common patterns of response using hierarchical clustering techniques. In addition, microarrays are also providing insights into developmental changes in gene expression associated with fibre and root elongation in cotton and maize, respectively. Technical and analytical limitations of microarrays are discussed and projects attempting to advance areas of microarray design and data analysis are highlighted. Finally, although much work remains, we conclude that microarrays are a valuable tool for the plant physiologist interested in the characterization and identification of individual genes and gene families with potential application in the fields of agriculture, horticulture and forestry.

  18. Combined gene expression analysis of whole-tissue and microdissected pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma identifies genes specifically overexpressed in tumor epithelia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Badea, Liviu; Herlea, Vlad; Dima, Simona Olimpia; Dumitrascu, Traian; Popescu, Irinel

    2008-01-01

    The precise details of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) pathogenesis are still insufficiently known, requiring the use of high-throughput methods. However, PDAC is especially difficult to study using microarrays due to its strong desmoplastic reaction, which involves a hyperproliferating stroma that effectively "masks" the contribution of the minoritary neoplastic epithelial cells. Thus it is not clear which of the genes that have been found differentially expressed between normal and whole tumor tissues are due to the tumor epithelia and which simply reflect the differences in cellular composition. To address this problem, laser microdissection studies have been performed, but these have to deal with much smaller tissue sample quantities and therefore have significantly higher experimental noise. In this paper we combine our own large sample whole-tissue study with a previously published smaller sample microdissection study by Grützmann et al. to identify the genes that are specifically overexpressed in PDAC tumor epithelia. The overlap of this list of genes with other microarray studies of pancreatic cancer as well as with the published literature is impressive. Moreover, we find a number of genes whose over-expression appears to be inversely correlated with patient survival: keratin 7, laminin gamma 2, stratifin, platelet phosphofructokinase, annexin A2, MAP4K4 and OACT2 (MBOAT2), which are all specifically upregulated in the neoplastic epithelia, rather than the tumor stroma. We improve on other microarray studies of PDAC by putting together the higher statistical power due to a larger number of samples with information about cell-type specific expression and patient survival.

  19. Microarray analysis of thioacetamide-treated type 1 diabetic rats

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    Devi, Sachin S.; Mehendale, Harihara M.

    2006-01-01

    It is well known that diabetes imparts high sensitivity to numerous hepatotoxicants. Previously, we have shown that a normally non-lethal dose of thioacetamide (TA, 300 mg/kg) causes 90% mortality in type 1 diabetic (DB) rats due to inhibited tissue repair allowing progression of liver injury. On the other hand, DB rats exposed to 30 mg TA/kg exhibit delayed tissue repair and delayed recovery from injury. The objective of this study was to investigate the mechanism of impaired tissue repair and progression of liver injury in TA-treated DB rats by using cDNA microarray. Gene expression pattern was examined at 0, 6, and 12 h after TA challenge, and selected mechanistic leads from microarray experiments were confirmed by real-time RT-PCR and further investigated at protein level over the time course of 0 to 36 h after TA treatment. Diabetic condition itself increased gene expression of proteases and decreased gene expression of protease inhibitors. Administration of 300 mg TA/kg to DB rats further elevated gene expression of proteases and suppressed gene expression of protease inhibitors, explaining progression of liver injury in DB rats after TA treatment. Inhibited expression of genes involved in cell division cycle (cyclin D1, IGFBP-1, ras, E2F) was observed after exposure of DB rats to 300 mg TA/kg, explaining inhibited tissue repair in these rats. On the other hand, DB rats receiving 30 mg TA/kg exhibit delayed expression of genes involved in cell division cycle, explaining delayed tissue repair in these rats. In conclusion, impaired cyclin D1 signaling along with increased proteases and decreased protease inhibitors may explain impaired tissue repair that leads to progression of liver injury initiated by TA in DB rats

  20. 6. Label-free selective plane illumination microscopy of tissue samples

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    Muteb Alharbi

    2017-10-01

    Conclusion: Overall this method meets the demands of the current needs for 3D imaging tissue samples in a label-free manner. Label-free Selective Plane Microscopy directly provides excellent information about the structure of the tissue samples. This work has highlighted the superiority of Label-free Selective Plane Microscopy to current approaches to label-free 3D imaging of tissue.

  1. Microarray Meta-Analysis of RNA-Binding Protein Functions in Alternative Polyadenylation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hu, Wenchao; Liu, Yuting; Yan, Jun

    2014-01-01

    Alternative polyadenylation (APA) is a post-transcriptional mechanism to generate diverse mRNA transcripts with different 3′UTRs from the same gene. In this study, we systematically searched for the APA events with differential expression in public mouse microarray data. Hundreds of genes with over-represented differential APA events and the corresponding experiments were identified. We further revealed that global APA differential expression occurred prevalently in tissues such as brain comparing to peripheral tissues, and biological processes such as development, differentiation and immune responses. Interestingly, we also observed widespread differential APA events in RNA-binding protein (RBP) genes such as Rbm3, Eif4e2 and Elavl1. Given the fact that RBPs are considered as the main regulators of differential APA expression, we constructed a co-expression network between APAs and RBPs using the microarray data. Further incorporation of CLIP-seq data of selected RBPs showed that Nova2 represses and Mbnl1 promotes the polyadenylation of closest poly(A) sites respectively. Altogether, our study is the first microarray meta-analysis in a mammal on the regulation of APA by RBPs that integrated massive mRNA expression data under a wide-range of biological conditions. Finally, we present our results as a comprehensive resource in an online website for the research community. PMID:24622240

  2. Development and application of a fluorescence protein microarray for detecting serum alpha-fetoprotein in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Aiying; Yin, Chengzeng; Wang, Zhenshun; Zhang, Yonghong; Zhao, Yuanshun; Li, Ang; Sun, Huanqin; Lin, Dongdong; Li, Ning

    2016-12-01

    Objective To develop a simple, effective, time-saving and low-cost fluorescence protein microarray method for detecting serum alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Method Non-contact piezoelectric print techniques were applied to fluorescence protein microarray to reduce the cost of prey antibody. Serum samples from patients with HCC and healthy control subjects were collected and evaluated for the presence of AFP using a novel fluorescence protein microarray. To validate the fluorescence protein microarray, serum samples were tested for AFP using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Results A total of 110 serum samples from patients with HCC ( n = 65) and healthy control subjects ( n = 45) were analysed. When the AFP cut-off value was set at 20 ng/ml, the fluorescence protein microarray had a sensitivity of 91.67% and a specificity of 93.24% for detecting serum AFP. Serum AFP quantified via fluorescence protein microarray had a similar diagnostic performance compared with ELISA in distinguishing patients with HCC from healthy control subjects (area under receiver operating characteristic curve: 0.906 for fluorescence protein microarray; 0.880 for ELISA). Conclusion A fluorescence protein microarray method was developed for detecting serum AFP in patients with HCC.

  3. The prognostic implication of the expression of EGFR, p53, cyclin D1, Bcl-2 and p16 in primary locally advanced oral squamous cell carcinoma cases: a tissue microarray study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Solomon, Monica Charlotte; Vidyasagar, M S; Fernandes, Donald; Guddattu, Vasudev; Mathew, Mary; Shergill, Ankur Kaur; Carnelio, Sunitha; Chandrashekar, Chetana

    2016-12-01

    Oral squamous cell carcinomas comprise a heterogeneous tumor cell population with varied molecular characteristics, which makes prognostication of these tumors a complex and challenging issue. Thus, molecular profiling of these tumors is advantageous for an accurate prognostication and treatment planning. This is a retrospective study on a cohort of primary locally advanced oral squamous cell carcinomas (n = 178) of an Indian rural population. The expression of EGFR, p53, cyclin D1, Bcl-2 and p16 in a cohort of primary locally advanced oral squamous cell carcinomas was evaluated. A potential biomarker that can predict the tumor response to treatment was identified. Formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tumor blocks of (n = 178) of histopathologically diagnosed cases of locally advanced oral squamous cell carcinomas were selected. Tissue microarray blocks were constructed with 2 cores of 2 mm diameter from each tumor block. Four-micron-thick sections were cut from these tissue microarray blocks. These tissue microarray sections were immunohistochemically stained for EGFR, p53, Bcl-2, cyclin D1 and p16. In this cohort, EGFR was the most frequently expressed 150/178 (84%) biomarker of the cases. Kaplan-Meier analysis showed a significant association (p = 0.038) between expression of p53 and a poor prognosis. A Poisson regression analysis showed that tumors that expressed p53 had a two times greater chance of recurrence (unadjusted IRR-95% CI 2.08 (1.03, 4.5), adjusted IRR-2.29 (1.08, 4.8) compared with the tumors that did not express this biomarker. Molecular profiling of oral squamous cell carcinomas will enable us to categorize our patients into more realistic risk groups. With biologically guided tumor characterization, personalized treatment protocols can be designed for individual patients, which will improve the quality of life of these patients.

  4. A DNA Microarray-Based Assay to Detect Dual Infection with Two Dengue Virus Serotypes

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    Alvaro Díaz-Badillo

    2014-04-01

    Full Text Available Here; we have described and tested a microarray based-method for the screening of dengue virus (DENV serotypes. This DNA microarray assay is specific and sensitive and can detect dual infections with two dengue virus serotypes and single-serotype infections. Other methodologies may underestimate samples containing more than one serotype. This technology can be used to discriminate between the four DENV serotypes. Single-stranded DNA targets were covalently attached to glass slides and hybridised with specific labelled probes. DENV isolates and dengue samples were used to evaluate microarray performance. Our results demonstrate that the probes hybridized specifically to DENV serotypes; with no detection of unspecific signals. This finding provides evidence that specific probes can effectively identify single and double infections in DENV samples.

  5. Preparation of tissue samples for X-ray fluorescence microscopy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chwiej, Joanna; Szczerbowska-Boruchowska, Magdalena; Lankosz, Marek; Wojcik, Slawomir; Falkenberg, Gerald; Stegowski, Zdzislaw; Setkowicz, Zuzanna

    2005-01-01

    As is well-known, trace elements, especially metals, play an important role in the pathogenesis of many disorders. The topographic and quantitative elemental analysis of pathologically changed tissues may shed some new light on processes leading to the degeneration of cells in the case of selected diseases. An ideal and powerful tool for such purpose is the Synchrotron Microbeam X-ray Fluorescence technique. It enables the carrying out of investigations of the elemental composition of tissues even at the single cell level. The tissue samples for histopathological investigations are routinely fixed and embedded in paraffin. The authors try to verify the usefulness of such prepared tissue sections for elemental analysis with the use of X-ray fluorescence microscopy. Studies were performed on rat brain samples. Changes in elemental composition caused by fixation in formalin or paraformaldehyde and embedding in paraffin were examined. Measurements were carried out at the bending magnet beamline L of the Hamburger Synchrotronstrahlungslabor HASYLAB in Hamburg. The decrease in mass per unit area of K, Br and the increase in P, S, Fe, Cu and Zn in the tissue were observed as a result of the fixation. For the samples embedded in paraffin, a lower level of most elements was observed. Additionally, for these samples, changes in the composition of some elements were not uniform for different analyzed areas of rat brain

  6. Preparation of tissue samples for X-ray fluorescence microscopy

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Chwiej, Joanna [Faculty of Physics and Applied Computer Science, AGH-University of Science and Technology, Al. Mickiewicza 30, 30-059 Cracow (Poland)]. E-mail: jchwiej@novell.ftj.agh.edu.pl; Szczerbowska-Boruchowska, Magdalena [Faculty of Physics and Applied Computer Science, AGH-University of Science and Technology, Al. Mickiewicza 30, 30-059 Cracow (Poland); Lankosz, Marek [Faculty of Physics and Applied Computer Science, AGH-University of Science and Technology, Al. Mickiewicza 30, 30-059 Cracow (Poland); Wojcik, Slawomir [Faculty of Physics and Applied Computer Science, AGH-University of Science and Technology, Al. Mickiewicza 30, 30-059 Cracow (Poland); Falkenberg, Gerald [Hamburger Synchrotronstrahlungslabor at Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron, Notkestr. 85, Hamburg (Germany); Stegowski, Zdzislaw [Faculty of Physics and Applied Computer Science, AGH-University of Science and Technology, Al. Mickiewicza 30, 30-059 Cracow (Poland); Setkowicz, Zuzanna [Department of Neuroanatomy, Institute of Zoology, Jagiellonian University, Ingardena 6, 30-060 Cracow (Poland)

    2005-12-15

    As is well-known, trace elements, especially metals, play an important role in the pathogenesis of many disorders. The topographic and quantitative elemental analysis of pathologically changed tissues may shed some new light on processes leading to the degeneration of cells in the case of selected diseases. An ideal and powerful tool for such purpose is the Synchrotron Microbeam X-ray Fluorescence technique. It enables the carrying out of investigations of the elemental composition of tissues even at the single cell level. The tissue samples for histopathological investigations are routinely fixed and embedded in paraffin. The authors try to verify the usefulness of such prepared tissue sections for elemental analysis with the use of X-ray fluorescence microscopy. Studies were performed on rat brain samples. Changes in elemental composition caused by fixation in formalin or paraformaldehyde and embedding in paraffin were examined. Measurements were carried out at the bending magnet beamline L of the Hamburger Synchrotronstrahlungslabor HASYLAB in Hamburg. The decrease in mass per unit area of K, Br and the increase in P, S, Fe, Cu and Zn in the tissue were observed as a result of the fixation. For the samples embedded in paraffin, a lower level of most elements was observed. Additionally, for these samples, changes in the composition of some elements were not uniform for different analyzed areas of rat brain.

  7. Crowdsourcing for translational research: analysis of biomarker expression using cancer microarrays.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lawson, Jonathan; Robinson-Vyas, Rupesh J; McQuillan, Janette P; Paterson, Andy; Christie, Sarah; Kidza-Griffiths, Matthew; McDuffus, Leigh-Anne; Moutasim, Karwan A; Shaw, Emily C; Kiltie, Anne E; Howat, William J; Hanby, Andrew M; Thomas, Gareth J; Smittenaar, Peter

    2017-01-17

    Academic pathology suffers from an acute and growing lack of workforce resource. This especially impacts on translational elements of clinical trials, which can require detailed analysis of thousands of tissue samples. We tested whether crowdsourcing - enlisting help from the public - is a sufficiently accurate method to score such samples. We developed a novel online interface to train and test lay participants on cancer detection and immunohistochemistry scoring in tissue microarrays. Lay participants initially performed cancer detection on lung cancer images stained for CD8, and we measured how extending a basic tutorial by annotated example images and feedback-based training affected cancer detection accuracy. We then applied this tutorial to additional cancer types and immunohistochemistry markers - bladder/ki67, lung/EGFR, and oesophageal/CD8 - to establish accuracy compared with experts. Using this optimised tutorial, we then tested lay participants' accuracy on immunohistochemistry scoring of lung/EGFR and bladder/p53 samples. We observed that for cancer detection, annotated example images and feedback-based training both improved accuracy compared with a basic tutorial only. Using this optimised tutorial, we demonstrate highly accurate (>0.90 area under curve) detection of cancer in samples stained with nuclear, cytoplasmic and membrane cell markers. We also observed high Spearman correlations between lay participants and experts for immunohistochemistry scoring (0.91 (0.78, 0.96) and 0.97 (0.91, 0.99) for lung/EGFR and bladder/p53 samples, respectively). These results establish crowdsourcing as a promising method to screen large data sets for biomarkers in cancer pathology research across a range of cancers and immunohistochemical stains.

  8. Report on emerging technologies for translational bioinformatics: a symposium on gene expression profiling for archival tissues

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Waldron Levi

    2012-03-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background With over 20 million formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded (FFPE tissue samples archived each year in the United States alone, archival tissues remain a vast and under-utilized resource in the genomic study of cancer. Technologies have recently been introduced for whole-transcriptome amplification and microarray analysis of degraded mRNA fragments from FFPE samples, and studies of these platforms have only recently begun to enter the published literature. Results The Emerging Technologies for Translational Bioinformatics symposium on gene expression profiling for archival tissues featured presentations of two large-scale FFPE expression profiling studies (each involving over 1,000 samples, overviews of several smaller studies, and representatives from three leading companies in the field (Illumina, Affymetrix, and NuGEN. The meeting highlighted challenges in the analysis of expression data from archival tissues and strategies being developed to overcome them. In particular, speakers reported higher rates of clinical sample failure (from 10% to 70% than are typical for fresh-frozen tissues, as well as more frequent probe failure for individual samples. The symposium program is available at http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/ffpe. Conclusions Multiple solutions now exist for whole-genome expression profiling of FFPE tissues, including both microarray- and sequencing-based platforms. Several studies have reported their successful application, but substantial challenges and risks still exist. Symposium speakers presented novel methodology for analysis of FFPE expression data and suggestions for improving data recovery and quality assessment in pre-analytical stages. Research presentations emphasized the need for careful study design, including the use of pilot studies, replication, and randomization of samples among batches, as well as careful attention to data quality control. Regardless of any limitations in quantitave transcriptomics for

  9. Design issues in toxicogenomics using DNA microarray experiment

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lee, Kyoung-Mu; Kim, Ju-Han; Kang, Daehee

    2005-01-01

    The methods of toxicogenomics might be classified into omics study (e.g., genomics, proteomics, and metabolomics) and population study focusing on risk assessment and gene-environment interaction. In omics study, microarray is the most popular approach. Genes falling into several categories (e.g., xenobiotics metabolism, cell cycle control, DNA repair etc.) can be selected up to 20,000 according to a priori hypothesis. The appropriate type of samples and species should be selected in advance. Multiple doses and varied exposure durations are suggested to identify those genes clearly linked to toxic response. Microarray experiments can be affected by numerous nuisance variables including experimental designs, sample extraction, type of scanners, etc. The number of slides might be determined from the magnitude and variance of expression change, false-positive rate, and desired power. Instead, pooling samples is an alternative. Online databases on chemicals with known exposure-disease outcomes and genetic information can aid the interpretation of the normalized results. Gene function can be inferred from microarray data analyzed by bioinformatics methods such as cluster analysis. The population study often adopts hospital-based or nested case-control design. Biases in subject selection and exposure assessment should be minimized, and confounding bias should also be controlled for in stratified or multiple regression analysis. Optimal sample sizes are dependent on the statistical test for gene-to-environment or gene-to-gene interaction. The design issues addressed in this mini-review are crucial in conducting toxicogenomics study. In addition, integrative approach of exposure assessment, epidemiology, and clinical trial is required

  10. Expression profiling of microRNAs in human bone tissue from postmenopausal women.

    Science.gov (United States)

    De-Ugarte, Laura; Serra-Vinardell, Jenny; Nonell, Lara; Balcells, Susana; Arnal, Magdalena; Nogues, Xavier; Mellibovsky, Leonardo; Grinberg, Daniel; Diez-Perez, Adolfo; Garcia-Giralt, Natalia

    2018-01-01

    Bone tissue is composed of several cell types, which express their own microRNAs (miRNAs) that will play a role in cell function. The set of total miRNAs expressed in all cell types configures the specific signature of the bone tissue in one physiological condition. The aim of this study was to explore the miRNA expression profile of bone tissue from postmenopausal women. Tissue was obtained from trabecular bone and was analyzed in fresh conditions (n = 6). Primary osteoblasts were also obtained from trabecular bone (n = 4) and human osteoclasts were obtained from monocyte precursors after in vitro differentiation (n = 5). MicroRNA expression profiling was obtained for each sample by microarray and a global miRNA analysis was performed combining the data acquired in all the microarray experiments. From the 641 miRNAs detected in bone tissue samples, 346 (54%) were present in osteoblasts and/or osteoclasts. The other 46% were not identified in any of the bone cells analyzed. Intersection of osteoblast and osteoclast arrays identified 101 miRNAs shared by both cell types, which accounts for 30-40% of miRNAs detected in these cells. In osteoblasts, 266 miRNAs were detected, of which 243 (91%) were also present in the total bone array, representing 38% of all bone miRNAs. In osteoclasts, 340 miRNAs were detected, of which 196 (58%) were also present in the bone tissue array, representing 31% of all miRNAs detected in total bone. These analyses provide an overview of miRNAs expressed in bone tissue, broadening our knowledge in the microRNA field.

  11. Generalization of DNA microarray dispersion properties: microarray equivalent of t-distribution

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Novak, Jaroslav P; Kim, Seon-Young; Xu, Jun

    2006-01-01

    BACKGROUND: DNA microarrays are a powerful technology that can provide a wealth of gene expression data for disease studies, drug development, and a wide scope of other investigations. Because of the large volume and inherent variability of DNA microarray data, many new statistical methods have...

  12. Fibre optic microarrays.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Walt, David R

    2010-01-01

    This tutorial review describes how fibre optic microarrays can be used to create a variety of sensing and measurement systems. This review covers the basics of optical fibres and arrays, the different microarray architectures, and describes a multitude of applications. Such arrays enable multiplexed sensing for a variety of analytes including nucleic acids, vapours, and biomolecules. Polymer-coated fibre arrays can be used for measuring microscopic chemical phenomena, such as corrosion and localized release of biochemicals from cells. In addition, these microarrays can serve as a substrate for fundamental studies of single molecules and single cells. The review covers topics of interest to chemists, biologists, materials scientists, and engineers.

  13. Development and application of an antibody-based protein microarray to assess physiological stress in grizzly bears (Ursus arctos).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Carlson, Ruth I; Cattet, Marc R L; Sarauer, Bryan L; Nielsen, Scott E; Boulanger, John; Stenhouse, Gordon B; Janz, David M

    2016-01-01

    A novel antibody-based protein microarray was developed that simultaneously determines expression of 31 stress-associated proteins in skin samples collected from free-ranging grizzly bears (Ursus arctos) in Alberta, Canada. The microarray determines proteins belonging to four broad functional categories associated with stress physiology: hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis proteins, apoptosis/cell cycle proteins, cellular stress/proteotoxicity proteins and oxidative stress/inflammation proteins. Small skin samples (50-100 mg) were collected from captured bears using biopsy punches. Proteins were isolated and labelled with fluorescent dyes, with labelled protein homogenates loaded onto microarrays to hybridize with antibodies. Relative protein expression was determined by comparison with a pooled standard skin sample. The assay was sensitive, requiring 80 µg of protein per sample to be run in triplicate on the microarray. Intra-array and inter-array coefficients of variation for individual proteins were generally bears. This suggests that remotely delivered biopsy darts could be used in future sampling. Using generalized linear mixed models, certain proteins within each functional category demonstrated altered expression with respect to differences in year, season, geographical sampling location within Alberta and bear biological parameters, suggesting that these general variables may influence expression of specific proteins in the microarray. Our goal is to apply the protein microarray as a conservation physiology tool that can detect, evaluate and monitor physiological stress in grizzly bears and other species at risk over time in response to environmental change.

  14. NMD Microarray Analysis for Rapid Genome-Wide Screen of Mutated Genes in Cancer

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    Maija Wolf

    2005-01-01

    Full Text Available Gene mutations play a critical role in cancer development and progression, and their identification offers possibilities for accurate diagnostics and therapeutic targeting. Finding genes undergoing mutations is challenging and slow, even in the post-genomic era. A new approach was recently developed by Noensie and Dietz to prioritize and focus the search, making use of nonsense-mediated mRNA decay (NMD inhibition and microarray analysis (NMD microarrays in the identification of transcripts containing nonsense mutations. We combined NMD microarrays with array-based CGH (comparative genomic hybridization in order to identify inactivation of tumor suppressor genes in cancer. Such a “mutatomics” screening of prostate cancer cell lines led to the identification of inactivating mutations in the EPHB2 gene. Up to 8% of metastatic uncultured prostate cancers also showed mutations of this gene whose loss of function may confer loss of tissue architecture. NMD microarray analysis could turn out to be a powerful research method to identify novel mutated genes in cancer cell lines, providing targets that could then be further investigated for their clinical relevance and therapeutic potential.

  15. Kernel Based Nonlinear Dimensionality Reduction and Classification for Genomic Microarray

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    Lan Shu

    2008-07-01

    Full Text Available Genomic microarrays are powerful research tools in bioinformatics and modern medicinal research because they enable massively-parallel assays and simultaneous monitoring of thousands of gene expression of biological samples. However, a simple microarray experiment often leads to very high-dimensional data and a huge amount of information, the vast amount of data challenges researchers into extracting the important features and reducing the high dimensionality. In this paper, a nonlinear dimensionality reduction kernel method based locally linear embedding(LLE is proposed, and fuzzy K-nearest neighbors algorithm which denoises datasets will be introduced as a replacement to the classical LLE’s KNN algorithm. In addition, kernel method based support vector machine (SVM will be used to classify genomic microarray data sets in this paper. We demonstrate the application of the techniques to two published DNA microarray data sets. The experimental results confirm the superiority and high success rates of the presented method.

  16. On the classification techniques in data mining for microarray data classification

    Science.gov (United States)

    Aydadenta, Husna; Adiwijaya

    2018-03-01

    Cancer is one of the deadly diseases, according to data from WHO by 2015 there are 8.8 million more deaths caused by cancer, and this will increase every year if not resolved earlier. Microarray data has become one of the most popular cancer-identification studies in the field of health, since microarray data can be used to look at levels of gene expression in certain cell samples that serve to analyze thousands of genes simultaneously. By using data mining technique, we can classify the sample of microarray data thus it can be identified with cancer or not. In this paper we will discuss some research using some data mining techniques using microarray data, such as Support Vector Machine (SVM), Artificial Neural Network (ANN), Naive Bayes, k-Nearest Neighbor (kNN), and C4.5, and simulation of Random Forest algorithm with technique of reduction dimension using Relief. The result of this paper show performance measure (accuracy) from classification algorithm (SVM, ANN, Naive Bayes, kNN, C4.5, and Random Forets).The results in this paper show the accuracy of Random Forest algorithm higher than other classification algorithms (Support Vector Machine (SVM), Artificial Neural Network (ANN), Naive Bayes, k-Nearest Neighbor (kNN), and C4.5). It is hoped that this paper can provide some information about the speed, accuracy, performance and computational cost generated from each Data Mining Classification Technique based on microarray data.

  17. A Versatile Microarray Platform for Capturing Rare Cells

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brinkmann, Falko; Hirtz, Michael; Haller, Anna; Gorges, Tobias M.; Vellekoop, Michael J.; Riethdorf, Sabine; Müller, Volkmar; Pantel, Klaus; Fuchs, Harald

    2015-10-01

    Analyses of rare events occurring at extremely low frequencies in body fluids are still challenging. We established a versatile microarray-based platform able to capture single target cells from large background populations. As use case we chose the challenging application of detecting circulating tumor cells (CTCs) - about one cell in a billion normal blood cells. After incubation with an antibody cocktail, targeted cells are extracted on a microarray in a microfluidic chip. The accessibility of our platform allows for subsequent recovery of targets for further analysis. The microarray facilitates exclusion of false positive capture events by co-localization allowing for detection without fluorescent labelling. Analyzing blood samples from cancer patients with our platform reached and partly outreached gold standard performance, demonstrating feasibility for clinical application. Clinical researchers free choice of antibody cocktail without need for altered chip manufacturing or incubation protocol, allows virtual arbitrary targeting of capture species and therefore wide spread applications in biomedical sciences.

  18. A non-parametric meta-analysis approach for combining independent microarray datasets: application using two microarray datasets pertaining to chronic allograft nephropathy

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Archer Kellie J

    2008-02-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background With the popularity of DNA microarray technology, multiple groups of researchers have studied the gene expression of similar biological conditions. Different methods have been developed to integrate the results from various microarray studies, though most of them rely on distributional assumptions, such as the t-statistic based, mixed-effects model, or Bayesian model methods. However, often the sample size for each individual microarray experiment is small. Therefore, in this paper we present a non-parametric meta-analysis approach for combining data from independent microarray studies, and illustrate its application on two independent Affymetrix GeneChip studies that compared the gene expression of biopsies from kidney transplant recipients with chronic allograft nephropathy (CAN to those with normal functioning allograft. Results The simulation study comparing the non-parametric meta-analysis approach to a commonly used t-statistic based approach shows that the non-parametric approach has better sensitivity and specificity. For the application on the two CAN studies, we identified 309 distinct genes that expressed differently in CAN. By applying Fisher's exact test to identify enriched KEGG pathways among those genes called differentially expressed, we found 6 KEGG pathways to be over-represented among the identified genes. We used the expression measurements of the identified genes as predictors to predict the class labels for 6 additional biopsy samples, and the predicted results all conformed to their pathologist diagnosed class labels. Conclusion We present a new approach for combining data from multiple independent microarray studies. This approach is non-parametric and does not rely on any distributional assumptions. The rationale behind the approach is logically intuitive and can be easily understood by researchers not having advanced training in statistics. Some of the identified genes and pathways have been

  19. Detecting Outlier Microarray Arrays by Correlation and Percentage of Outliers Spots

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    Song Yang

    2006-01-01

    Full Text Available We developed a quality assurance (QA tool, namely microarray outlier filter (MOF, and have applied it to our microarray datasets for the identification of problematic arrays. Our approach is based on the comparison of the arrays using the correlation coefficient and the number of outlier spots generated on each array to reveal outlier arrays. For a human universal reference (HUR dataset, which is used as a technical control in our standard hybridization procedure, 3 outlier arrays were identified out of 35 experiments. For a human blood dataset, 12 outlier arrays were identified from 185 experiments. In general, arrays from human blood samples displayed greater variation in their gene expression profiles than arrays from HUR samples. As a result, MOF identified two distinct patterns in the occurrence of outlier arrays. These results demonstrate that this methodology is a valuable QA practice to identify questionable microarray data prior to downstream analysis.

  20. USAXS and SAXS from cancer-bearing breast tissue samples

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fernandez, M.; Suhonen, H.; Keyrilaeinen, J.; Bravin, A.; Fiedler, S.; Karjalainen-Lindsberg, M.-L.; Leidenius, M.; Smitten, K. von; Suortti, P.

    2008-01-01

    USAXS and SAXS patterns from cancer-bearing human breast tissue samples were recorded at beamline ID02 of the ESRF using a Bonse-Hart camera and a pinhole camera. The samples were classified as being ductal carcinoma, grade II, and ductal carcinoma in situ, partly invasive. The samples included areas of healthy collagen, invaded collagen, necrotic ducts with calcifications, and adipose tissue. The scattering patterns were analyzed in different ways to separate the scattering contribution and the direct beam from the observed rocking curve (RC) of the analyzer. It was found that USAXS from all tissues was weak, and the effects on the analyzer RC were observed only in the low-intensity tails of the patterns. The intrinsic RC was convolved with different model functions for the impulse response of the sample, and the best fit with experiment was obtained by the Pearson VII function. Significantly different distributions for the Pearson exponent m were obtained in benign and malignant regions of the samples. For a comparison with analyzer-based imaging (ABI) or diffraction enhanced imaging (DEI) a 'long-slit' integration of the patterns was performed, and this emphasized the scattering contribution in the tails of the rocking curve

  1. Universal ligation-detection-reaction microarray applied for compost microbes

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Romantschuk Martin

    2008-12-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Composting is one of the methods utilised in recycling organic communal waste. The composting process is dependent on aerobic microbial activity and proceeds through a succession of different phases each dominated by certain microorganisms. In this study, a ligation-detection-reaction (LDR based microarray method was adapted for species-level detection of compost microbes characteristic of each stage of the composting process. LDR utilises the specificity of the ligase enzyme to covalently join two adjacently hybridised probes. A zip-oligo is attached to the 3'-end of one probe and fluorescent label to the 5'-end of the other probe. Upon ligation, the probes are combined in the same molecule and can be detected in a specific location on a universal microarray with complementary zip-oligos enabling equivalent hybridisation conditions for all probes. The method was applied to samples from Nordic composting facilities after testing and optimisation with fungal pure cultures and environmental clones. Results Probes targeted for fungi were able to detect 0.1 fmol of target ribosomal PCR product in an artificial reaction mixture containing 100 ng competing fungal ribosomal internal transcribed spacer (ITS area or herring sperm DNA. The detection level was therefore approximately 0.04% of total DNA. Clone libraries were constructed from eight compost samples. The LDR microarray results were in concordance with the clone library sequencing results. In addition a control probe was used to monitor the per-spot hybridisation efficiency on the array. Conclusion This study demonstrates that the LDR microarray method is capable of sensitive and accurate species-level detection from a complex microbial community. The method can detect key species from compost samples, making it a basis for a tool for compost process monitoring in industrial facilities.

  2. Testing an aflatoxin B1 gene signature in rat archival tissues.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Merrick, B Alex; Auerbach, Scott S; Stockton, Patricia S; Foley, Julie F; Malarkey, David E; Sills, Robert C; Irwin, Richard D; Tice, Raymond R

    2012-05-21

    Archival tissues from laboratory studies represent a unique opportunity to explore the relationship between genomic changes and agent-induced disease. In this study, we evaluated the applicability of qPCR for detecting genomic changes in formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissues by determining if a subset of 14 genes from a 90-gene signature derived from microarray data and associated with eventual tumor development could be detected in archival liver, kidney, and lung of rats exposed to aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) for 90 days in feed at 1 ppm. These tissues originated from the same rats used in the microarray study. The 14 genes evaluated were Adam8, Cdh13, Ddit4l, Mybl2, Akr7a3, Akr7a2, Fhit, Wwox, Abcb1b, Abcc3, Cxcl1, Gsta5, Grin2c, and the C8orf46 homologue. The qPCR FFPE liver results were compared to the original liver microarray data and to qPCR results using RNA from fresh frozen liver. Archival liver paraffin blocks yielded 30 to 50 μg of degraded RNA that ranged in size from 0.1 to 4 kB. qPCR results from FFPE and fresh frozen liver samples were positively correlated (p ≤ 0.05) by regression analysis and showed good agreement in direction and proportion of change with microarray data for 11 of 14 genes. All 14 transcripts could be amplified from FFPE kidney RNA except the glutamate receptor gene Grin2c; however, only Abcb1b was significantly upregulated from control. Abundant constitutive transcripts, S18 and β-actin, could be amplified from lung FFPE samples, but the narrow RNA size range (25-500 bp length) prevented consistent detection of target transcripts. Overall, a discrete gene signature derived from prior transcript profiling and representing cell cycle progression, DNA damage response, and xenosensor and detoxication pathways was successfully applied to archival liver and kidney by qPCR and indicated that gene expression changes in response to subchronic AFB1 exposure occurred predominantly in the liver, the primary target for AFB1-induced

  3. Cross-platform comparison of SYBR® Green real-time PCR with TaqMan PCR, microarrays and other gene expression measurement technologies evaluated in the MicroArray Quality Control (MAQC study

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    Dial Stacey L

    2008-07-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background The MicroArray Quality Control (MAQC project evaluated the inter- and intra-platform reproducibility of seven microarray platforms and three quantitative gene expression assays in profiling the expression of two commercially available Reference RNA samples (Nat Biotechnol 24:1115-22, 2006. The tested microarrays were the platforms from Affymetrix, Agilent Technologies, Applied Biosystems, GE Healthcare, Illumina, Eppendorf and the National Cancer Institute, and quantitative gene expression assays included TaqMan® Gene Expression PCR Assay, Standardized (Sta RT-PCR™ and QuantiGene®. The data showed great consistency in gene expression measurements across different microarray platforms, different technologies and test sites. However, SYBR® Green real-time PCR, another common technique utilized by half of all real-time PCR users for gene expression measurement, was not addressed in the MAQC study. In the present study, we compared the performance of SYBR Green PCR with TaqMan PCR, microarrays and other quantitative technologies using the same two Reference RNA samples as the MAQC project. We assessed SYBR Green real-time PCR using commercially available RT2 Profiler™ PCR Arrays from SuperArray, containing primer pairs that have been experimentally validated to ensure gene-specificity and high amplification efficiency. Results The SYBR Green PCR Arrays exhibit good reproducibility among different users, PCR instruments and test sites. In addition, the SYBR Green PCR Arrays have the highest concordance with TaqMan PCR, and a high level of concordance with other quantitative methods and microarrays that were evaluated in this study in terms of fold-change correlation and overlap of lists of differentially expressed genes. Conclusion These data demonstrate that SYBR Green real-time PCR delivers highly comparable results in gene expression measurement with TaqMan PCR and other high-density microarrays.

  4. Dimension reduction methods for microarray data: a review

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    Rabia Aziz

    2017-03-01

    Full Text Available Dimension reduction has become inevitable for pre-processing of high dimensional data. “Gene expression microarray data” is an instance of such high dimensional data. Gene expression microarray data displays the maximum number of genes (features simultaneously at a molecular level with a very small number of samples. The copious numbers of genes are usually provided to a learning algorithm for producing a complete characterization of the classification task. However, most of the times the majority of the genes are irrelevant or redundant to the learning task. It will deteriorate the learning accuracy and training speed as well as lead to the problem of overfitting. Thus, dimension reduction of microarray data is a crucial preprocessing step for prediction and classification of disease. Various feature selection and feature extraction techniques have been proposed in the literature to identify the genes, that have direct impact on the various machine learning algorithms for classification and eliminate the remaining ones. This paper describes the taxonomy of dimension reduction methods with their characteristics, evaluation criteria, advantages and disadvantages. It also presents a review of numerous dimension reduction approaches for microarray data, mainly those methods that have been proposed over the past few years.

  5. Correction of technical bias in clinical microarray data improves concordance with known biological information

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Eklund, Aron Charles; Szallasi, Zoltan Imre

    2008-01-01

    The performance of gene expression microarrays has been well characterized using controlled reference samples, but the performance on clinical samples remains less clear. We identified sources of technical bias affecting many genes in concert, thus causing spurious correlations in clinical data...... sets and false associations between genes and clinical variables. We developed a method to correct for technical bias in clinical microarray data, which increased concordance with known biological relationships in multiple data sets....

  6. X-ray scattering for the characterization of lyophilized breast tissue samples

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Elshemey, Wael M.; Mohamed, Fayrouz S.; Khater, Ibrahim M.

    2013-01-01

    This work investigates the possibility of characterizing breast cancer by measuring the X-ray scattering profiles of lyophilized excised breast tissue samples. Since X-ray scattering from water-rich tissue is dominated by scattering from water, the removal of water by lyophilization would enhance the characterization process. In the present study, X-ray scattering profiles of 22 normal, 22 malignant and 10 benign breast tissue samples are measured. The cut-offs of scatter diagrams, sensitivity, specificity and diagnostic accuracy of three characterization parameters (full width at half maximum (FWHM) for the peak at 1.1 nm −1 , area under curve (AUC), and ratio of 1st to 2nd scattering peak intensities (I 1 /I 2 %)) are calculated and compared to the data from non-lyophilized samples. Results show increased sensitivity (up to 100%) of the present data on lyophilized breast tissue samples compared to previously reported data for non-lyophilized samples while the specificity (up to 95.4%), diagnostic accuracy (up to 95.4%) and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve values (up to 0.9979) for both sets of data are comparable. The present study shows significant differences between normal samples and each of malignant and benign samples. Only subtle differences exist between malignant and benign lyophilized breast tissue samples where FWHM=0.7±0.1 and 0.8±0.3, AUC=1.3±0.2 and 1.4±0.2 and I 1 /I 2 %=44.9±11.0 and 52.4±7.6 for malignant and benign samples respectively. - Highlights: • X-ray scattering profiles of breast tissue samples are acquired. • Three X-ray profile characterization parameters are calculated. • The cut-offs, sensitivity, specificity and diagnostic accuracy are calculated. • They are compared to the data from non-lyophilized samples. • Results show increased sensitivity in case of lyophilized samples

  7. Hierarchical information representation and efficient classification of gene expression microarray data

    OpenAIRE

    Bosio, Mattia

    2014-01-01

    In the field of computational biology, microarryas are used to measure the activity of thousands of genes at once and create a global picture of cellular function. Microarrays allow scientists to analyze expression of many genes in a single experiment quickly and eficiently. Even if microarrays are a consolidated research technology nowadays and the trends in high-throughput data analysis are shifting towards new technologies like Next Generation Sequencing (NGS), an optimum method for sample...

  8. Applications of nanotechnology, next generation sequencing and microarrays in biomedical research.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Elingaramil, Sauli; Li, Xiaolong; He, Nongyue

    2013-07-01

    Next-generation sequencing technologies, microarrays and advances in bio nanotechnology have had an enormous impact on research within a short time frame. This impact appears certain to increase further as many biomedical institutions are now acquiring these prevailing new technologies. Beyond conventional sampling of genome content, wide-ranging applications are rapidly evolving for next-generation sequencing, microarrays and nanotechnology. To date, these technologies have been applied in a variety of contexts, including whole-genome sequencing, targeted re sequencing and discovery of transcription factor binding sites, noncoding RNA expression profiling and molecular diagnostics. This paper thus discusses current applications of nanotechnology, next-generation sequencing technologies and microarrays in biomedical research and highlights the transforming potential these technologies offer.

  9. Comparing bacterial community composition between healthy and white plague-like disease states in Orbicella annularis using PhyloChip™ G3 microarrays

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kellogg, Christina A.; Piceno, Yvette M.; Tom, Lauren M.; DeSantis, Todd Z.; Gray, Michael A.; Zawada, David G.; Andersen, Gary L.

    2013-01-01

    Coral disease is a global problem. Diseases are typically named or described based on macroscopic changes, but broad signs of coral distress such as tissue loss or discoloration are unlikely to be specific to a particular pathogen. For example, there appear to be multiple diseases that manifest the rapid tissue loss that characterizes ‘white plague.’ PhyloChip™ G3 microarrays were used to compare the bacterial community composition of both healthy and white plague-like diseased corals. Samples of lobed star coral (Orbicella annularis, formerly of the genus Montastraea [1]) were collected from two geographically distinct areas, Dry Tortugas National Park and Virgin Islands National Park, to determine if there were biogeographic differences between the diseases. In fact, all diseased samples clustered together, however there was no consistent link to Aurantimonas coralicida, which has been described as the causative agent of white plague type II. The microarrays revealed a large amount of bacterial heterogeneity within the healthy corals and less diversity in the diseased corals. Gram-positive bacterial groups (Actinobacteria, Firmicutes) comprised a greater proportion of the operational taxonomic units (OTUs) unique to healthy samples. Diseased samples were enriched in OTUs from the families Corynebacteriaceae, Lachnospiraceae, Rhodobacteraceae, and Streptococcaceae. Much previous coral disease work has used clone libraries, which seem to be methodologically biased toward recovery of Gram-negative bacterial sequences and may therefore have missed the importance of Gram-positive groups. The PhyloChip™ data presented here provide a broader characterization of the bacterial community changes that occur within Orbicella annularis during the shift from a healthy to diseased state.

  10. Manual evaluation of tissue microarrays in a high-throughput research project: The contribution of Indian surgical pathology to the Human Protein Atlas (HPA) project.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Navani, Sanjay

    2016-04-01

    The Human Protein Atlas (HPA) program (www.proteinatlas.org) is an international program that has been set up to allow for a systematic exploration of the human proteome using antibody-based proteomics. This is accomplished by combining high-throughput generation of affinity-purified (mono-specific) antibodies with protein profiling in a multitude of tissues/cell types assembled in tissue microarrays. Twenty-six surgical pathologists over a seven-and-half year period have annotated and curated approximately sixteen million tissue images derived from immunostaining of normal and cancer tissues by approximately 23 000 antibodies. Web-based annotation software that allows for a basic and rapid evaluation of immunoreactivity in tissues has been utilized. Intensity, fraction of immunoreactive cells and subcellular localization were recorded for each given cell population. A text comment summarizing the characteristics for each antibody was added. The methods used and the challenges encountered for this exercise, the largest effort ever by a single group of surgical pathologists, are discussed. Manual annotation of digital images is an important tool that may be successfully utilized in high-throughput research projects. This is the first time an Indian private pathology laboratory has been associated with cutting-edge research internationally providing a classic example of developed and emerging nation collaboration. © 2016 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

  11. Association of adipocyte genes with ASP expression: a microarray analysis of subcutaneous and omental adipose tissue in morbidly obese subjects

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lu HuiLing

    2010-01-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Prevalence of obesity is increasing to pandemic proportions. However, obese subjects differ in insulin resistance, adipokine production and co-morbidities. Based on fasting plasma analysis, obese subjects were grouped as Low Acylation Stimulating protein (ASP and Triglyceride (TG (LAT vs High ASP and TG (HAT. Subcutaneous (SC and omental (OM adipose tissues (n = 21 were analysed by microarray, and biologic pathways in lipid metabolism and inflammation were specifically examined. Methods LAT and HAT groups were matched in age, obesity, insulin, and glucose, and had similar expression of insulin-related genes (InsR, IRS-1. ASP related genes tended to be increased in the HAT group and were correlated (factor B, adipsin, complement C3, p Results HAT adipose tissue demonstrated increased lipid related genes for storage (CD36, DGAT1, DGAT2, SCD1, FASN, and LPL, lipolysis (HSL, CES1, perilipin, fatty acid binding proteins (FABP1, FABP3 and adipocyte differentiation markers (CEBPα, CEBPβ, PPARγ. By contrast, oxidation related genes were decreased (AMPK, UCP1, CPT1, FABP7. HAT subjects had increased anti-inflammatory genes TGFB1, TIMP1, TIMP3, and TIMP4 while proinflammatory PIG7 and MMP2 were also significantly increased; all genes, p Conclusion Taken together, the profile of C5L2 receptor, ASP gene expression and metabolic factors in adipose tissue from morbidly obese HAT subjects suggests a compensatory response associated with the increased plasma ASP and TG.

  12. Novel Protein Microarray Technology to Examine Men with Prostate Cancer

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Lilja, Hans

    2005-01-01

    The authors developed a novel macro and nanoporous silicon surface for protein microarrays to facilitate high-throughput biomarker discovery, and high-density protein-chip array analyses of complex biological samples...

  13. Transcriptional profiling of endocrine cerebro-osteodysplasia using microarray and next-generation sequencing.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Piya Lahiry

    Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Transcriptome profiling of patterns of RNA expression is a powerful approach to identify networks of genes that play a role in disease. To date, most mRNA profiling of tissues has been accomplished using microarrays, but next-generation sequencing can offer a richer and more comprehensive picture. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: ECO is a rare multi-system developmental disorder caused by a homozygous mutation in ICK encoding intestinal cell kinase. We performed gene expression profiling using both cDNA microarrays and next-generation mRNA sequencing (mRNA-seq of skin fibroblasts from ECO-affected subjects. We then validated a subset of differentially expressed transcripts identified by each method using quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR. Finally, we used gene ontology (GO to identify critical pathways and processes that were abnormal according to each technical platform. Methodologically, mRNA-seq identifies a much larger number of differentially expressed genes with much better correlation to qRT-PCR results than the microarray (r² = 0.794 and 0.137, respectively. Biologically, cDNA microarray identified functional pathways focused on anatomical structure and development, while the mRNA-seq platform identified a higher proportion of genes involved in cell division and DNA replication pathways. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Transcriptome profiling with mRNA-seq had greater sensitivity, range and accuracy than the microarray. The two platforms generated different but complementary hypotheses for further evaluation.

  14. How large a training set is needed to develop a classifier for microarray data?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dobbin, Kevin K; Zhao, Yingdong; Simon, Richard M

    2008-01-01

    A common goal of gene expression microarray studies is the development of a classifier that can be used to divide patients into groups with different prognoses, or with different expected responses to a therapy. These types of classifiers are developed on a training set, which is the set of samples used to train a classifier. The question of how many samples are needed in the training set to produce a good classifier from high-dimensional microarray data is challenging. We present a model-based approach to determining the sample size required to adequately train a classifier. It is shown that sample size can be determined from three quantities: standardized fold change, class prevalence, and number of genes or features on the arrays. Numerous examples and important experimental design issues are discussed. The method is adapted to address ex post facto determination of whether the size of a training set used to develop a classifier was adequate. An interactive web site for performing the sample size calculations is provided. We showed that sample size calculations for classifier development from high-dimensional microarray data are feasible, discussed numerous important considerations, and presented examples.

  15. Support vector machine and principal component analysis for microarray data classification

    Science.gov (United States)

    Astuti, Widi; Adiwijaya

    2018-03-01

    Cancer is a leading cause of death worldwide although a significant proportion of it can be cured if it is detected early. In recent decades, technology called microarray takes an important role in the diagnosis of cancer. By using data mining technique, microarray data classification can be performed to improve the accuracy of cancer diagnosis compared to traditional techniques. The characteristic of microarray data is small sample but it has huge dimension. Since that, there is a challenge for researcher to provide solutions for microarray data classification with high performance in both accuracy and running time. This research proposed the usage of Principal Component Analysis (PCA) as a dimension reduction method along with Support Vector Method (SVM) optimized by kernel functions as a classifier for microarray data classification. The proposed scheme was applied on seven data sets using 5-fold cross validation and then evaluation and analysis conducted on term of both accuracy and running time. The result showed that the scheme can obtained 100% accuracy for Ovarian and Lung Cancer data when Linear and Cubic kernel functions are used. In term of running time, PCA greatly reduced the running time for every data sets.

  16. Normalization for triple-target microarray experiments

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Magniette Frederic

    2008-04-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Most microarray studies are made using labelling with one or two dyes which allows the hybridization of one or two samples on the same slide. In such experiments, the most frequently used dyes are Cy3 and Cy5. Recent improvements in the technology (dye-labelling, scanner and, image analysis allow hybridization up to four samples simultaneously. The two additional dyes are Alexa488 and Alexa494. The triple-target or four-target technology is very promising, since it allows more flexibility in the design of experiments, an increase in the statistical power when comparing gene expressions induced by different conditions and a scaled down number of slides. However, there have been few methods proposed for statistical analysis of such data. Moreover the lowess correction of the global dye effect is available for only two-color experiments, and even if its application can be derived, it does not allow simultaneous correction of the raw data. Results We propose a two-step normalization procedure for triple-target experiments. First the dye bleeding is evaluated and corrected if necessary. Then the signal in each channel is normalized using a generalized lowess procedure to correct a global dye bias. The normalization procedure is validated using triple-self experiments and by comparing the results of triple-target and two-color experiments. Although the focus is on triple-target microarrays, the proposed method can be used to normalize p differently labelled targets co-hybridized on a same array, for any value of p greater than 2. Conclusion The proposed normalization procedure is effective: the technical biases are reduced, the number of false positives is under control in the analysis of differentially expressed genes, and the triple-target experiments are more powerful than the corresponding two-color experiments. There is room for improving the microarray experiments by simultaneously hybridizing more than two samples.

  17. Establishment of a protocol for the gene expression analysis of laser microdissected rat kidney samples with affymetrix genechips

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Stemmer, Kerstin; Ellinger-Ziegelbauer, Heidrun; Lotz, Kerstin; Ahr, Hans-J.; Dietrich, Daniel R.

    2006-01-01

    Laser microdissection in conjunction with microarray technology allows selective isolation and analysis of specific cell populations, e.g., preneoplastic renal lesions. To date, only limited information is available on sample preparation and preservation techniques that result in both optimal histomorphological preservation of sections and high-quality RNA for microarray analysis. Furthermore, amplification of minute amounts of RNA from microdissected renal samples allowing analysis with genechips has only scantily been addressed to date. The objective of this study was therefore to establish a reliable and reproducible protocol for laser microdissection in conjunction with microarray technology using kidney tissue from Eker rats p.o. treated for 7 days and 6 months with 10 and 1 mg Aristolochic acid/kg bw, respectively. Kidney tissues were preserved in RNAlater or snap frozen. Cryosections were cut and stained with either H and E or cresyl violet for subsequent morphological and RNA quality assessment and laser microdissection. RNA quality was comparable in snap frozen and RNAlater-preserved samples, however, the histomorphological preservation of renal sections was much better following cryopreservation. Moreover, the different staining techniques in combination with sample processing time at room temperature can have an influence on RNA quality. Different RNA amplification protocols were shown to have an impact on gene expression profiles as demonstrated with Affymetrix Rat Genome 230 2 .0 arrays. Considering all the parameters analyzed in this study, a protocol for RNA isolation from laser microdissected samples with subsequent Affymetrix chip hybridization was established that was also successfully applied to preneoplastic lesions laser microdissected from Aristolochic acid-treated rats

  18. Design, construction and validation of a Plasmodium vivax microarray for the transcriptome profiling of clinical isolates

    KAUST Repository

    Boopathi, Pon Arunachalam

    2016-10-09

    High density oligonucleotide microarrays have been used on Plasmodium vivax field isolates to estimate whole genome expression. However, no microarray platform has been experimentally optimized for studying the transcriptome of field isolates. In the present study, we adopted both bioinformatics and experimental testing approaches to select best optimized probes suitable for detecting parasite transcripts from field samples and included them in designing a custom 15K P. vivax microarray. This microarray has long oligonucleotide probes (60 mer) that were in-situ synthesized onto glass slides using Agilent SurePrint technology and has been developed into an 8X15K format (8 identical arrays on a single slide). Probes in this array were experimentally validated and represents 4180 P. vivax genes in sense orientation, of which 1219 genes have also probes in antisense orientation. Validation of the 15K array by using field samples (n =14) has shown 99% of parasite transcript detection from any of the samples. Correlation analysis between duplicate probes (n = 85) present in the arrays showed perfect correlation (r(2) = 0.98) indicating the reproducibility. Multiple probes representing the same gene exhibited similar kind of expression pattern across the samples (positive correlation, r >= 0.6). Comparison of hybridization data with the previous studies and quantitative real-time PCR experiments were performed to highlight the microarray validation procedure. This array is unique in its design, and results indicate that the array is sensitive and reproducible. Hence, this microarray could be a valuable functional genomics tool to generate reliable expression data from P. vivax field isolates. (C) 2016 Published by Elsevier B.V.

  19. Design, construction and validation of a Plasmodium vivax microarray for the transcriptome profiling of clinical isolates

    KAUST Repository

    Boopathi, Pon Arunachalam; Subudhi, Amit; Middha, Sheetal; Acharya, Jyoti; Mugasimangalam, Raja Chinnadurai; Kochar, Sanjay Kumar; Kochar, Dhanpat Kumar; Das, Ashis

    2016-01-01

    High density oligonucleotide microarrays have been used on Plasmodium vivax field isolates to estimate whole genome expression. However, no microarray platform has been experimentally optimized for studying the transcriptome of field isolates. In the present study, we adopted both bioinformatics and experimental testing approaches to select best optimized probes suitable for detecting parasite transcripts from field samples and included them in designing a custom 15K P. vivax microarray. This microarray has long oligonucleotide probes (60 mer) that were in-situ synthesized onto glass slides using Agilent SurePrint technology and has been developed into an 8X15K format (8 identical arrays on a single slide). Probes in this array were experimentally validated and represents 4180 P. vivax genes in sense orientation, of which 1219 genes have also probes in antisense orientation. Validation of the 15K array by using field samples (n =14) has shown 99% of parasite transcript detection from any of the samples. Correlation analysis between duplicate probes (n = 85) present in the arrays showed perfect correlation (r(2) = 0.98) indicating the reproducibility. Multiple probes representing the same gene exhibited similar kind of expression pattern across the samples (positive correlation, r >= 0.6). Comparison of hybridization data with the previous studies and quantitative real-time PCR experiments were performed to highlight the microarray validation procedure. This array is unique in its design, and results indicate that the array is sensitive and reproducible. Hence, this microarray could be a valuable functional genomics tool to generate reliable expression data from P. vivax field isolates. (C) 2016 Published by Elsevier B.V.

  20. Development and evaluation of a high-throughput, low-cost genotyping platform based on oligonucleotide microarrays in rice

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Liu Bin

    2008-05-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background We report the development of a microarray platform for rapid and cost-effective genetic mapping, and its evaluation using rice as a model. In contrast to methods employing whole-genome tiling microarrays for genotyping, our method is based on low-cost spotted microarray production, focusing only on known polymorphic features. Results We have produced a genotyping microarray for rice, comprising 880 single feature polymorphism (SFP elements derived from insertions/deletions identified by aligning genomic sequences of the japonica cultivar Nipponbare and the indica cultivar 93-11. The SFPs were experimentally verified by hybridization with labeled genomic DNA prepared from the two cultivars. Using the genotyping microarrays, we found high levels of polymorphism across diverse rice accessions, and were able to classify all five subpopulations of rice with high bootstrap support. The microarrays were used for mapping of a gene conferring resistance to Magnaporthe grisea, the causative organism of rice blast disease, by quantitative genotyping of samples from a recombinant inbred line population pooled by phenotype. Conclusion We anticipate this microarray-based genotyping platform, based on its low cost-per-sample, to be particularly useful in applications requiring whole-genome molecular marker coverage across large numbers of individuals.

  1. A Customized DNA Microarray for Microbial Source Tracking ...

    Science.gov (United States)

    It is estimated that more than 160, 000 miles of rivers and streams in the United States are impaired due to the presence of waterborne pathogens. These pathogens typically originate from human and other animal fecal pollution sources; therefore, a rapid microbial source tracking (MST) method is needed to facilitate water quality assessment and impaired water remediation. We report a novel qualitative DNA microarray technology consisting of 453 probes for the detection of general fecal and host-associated bacteria, viruses, antibiotic resistance, and other environmentally relevant genetic indicators. A novel data normalization and reduction approach is also presented to help alleviate false positives often associated with high-density microarray applications. To evaluate the performance of the approach, DNA and cDNA was isolated from swine, cattle, duck, goose and gull fecal reference samples, as well as soiled poultry liter and raw municipal sewage. Based on nonmetric multidimensional scaling analysis of results, findings suggest that the novel microarray approach may be useful for pathogen detection and identification of fecal contamination in recreational waters. The ability to simultaneously detect a large collection of environmentally important genetic indicators in a single test has the potential to provide water quality managers with a wide range of information in a short period of time. Future research is warranted to measure microarray performance i

  2. RAPID PROCESSING OF ARCHIVAL TISSUE SAMPLES FOR PROTEOMIC ANALYSIS USING PRESSURE-CYCLING TECHNOLOGY

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Vinuth N. Puttamallesh1,2

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available Advent of mass spectrometry based proteomics has revolutionized our ability to study proteins from biological specimen in a high-throughput manner. Unlike cell line based studies, biomedical research involving tissue specimen is often challenging due to limited sample availability. In addition, investigation of clinically relevant research questions often requires enormous amount of time for sample collection prospectively. Formalin fixed paraffin embedded (FFPE archived tissue samples are a rich source of tissue specimen for biomedical research. However, there are several challenges associated with analysing FFPE samples. Protein cross-linking and degradation of proteins particularly affects proteomic analysis. We demonstrate that barocycler that uses pressure-cycling technology enables efficient protein extraction and processing of small amounts of FFPE tissue samples for proteomic analysis. We identified 3,525 proteins from six 10µm esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC tissue sections. Barocycler allows efficient protein extraction and proteolytic digestion of proteins from FFPE tissue sections at par with conventional methods.

  3. Network Expansion and Pathway Enrichment Analysis towards Biologically Significant Findings from Microarrays

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wu Xiaogang

    2012-06-01

    Full Text Available In many cases, crucial genes show relatively slight changes between groups of samples (e.g. normal vs. disease, and many genes selected from microarray differential analysis by measuring the expression level statistically are also poorly annotated and lack of biological significance. In this paper, we present an innovative approach - network expansion and pathway enrichment analysis (NEPEA for integrative microarray analysis. We assume that organized knowledge will help microarray data analysis in significant ways, and the organized knowledge could be represented as molecular interaction networks or biological pathways. Based on this hypothesis, we develop the NEPEA framework based on network expansion from the human annotated and predicted protein interaction (HAPPI database, and pathway enrichment from the human pathway database (HPD. We use a recently-published microarray dataset (GSE24215 related to insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes (T2D as case study, since this study provided a thorough experimental validation for both genes and pathways identified computationally from classical microarray analysis and pathway analysis. We perform our NEPEA analysis for this dataset based on the results from the classical microarray analysis to identify biologically significant genes and pathways. Our findings are not only consistent with the original findings mostly, but also obtained more supports from other literatures.

  4. Gene selection for microarray data classification via subspace learning and manifold regularization.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tang, Chang; Cao, Lijuan; Zheng, Xiao; Wang, Minhui

    2017-12-19

    With the rapid development of DNA microarray technology, large amount of genomic data has been generated. Classification of these microarray data is a challenge task since gene expression data are often with thousands of genes but a small number of samples. In this paper, an effective gene selection method is proposed to select the best subset of genes for microarray data with the irrelevant and redundant genes removed. Compared with original data, the selected gene subset can benefit the classification task. We formulate the gene selection task as a manifold regularized subspace learning problem. In detail, a projection matrix is used to project the original high dimensional microarray data into a lower dimensional subspace, with the constraint that the original genes can be well represented by the selected genes. Meanwhile, the local manifold structure of original data is preserved by a Laplacian graph regularization term on the low-dimensional data space. The projection matrix can serve as an importance indicator of different genes. An iterative update algorithm is developed for solving the problem. Experimental results on six publicly available microarray datasets and one clinical dataset demonstrate that the proposed method performs better when compared with other state-of-the-art methods in terms of microarray data classification. Graphical Abstract The graphical abstract of this work.

  5. Versatile High Throughput Microarray Analysis for Marine Glycobiology

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Asunción Salmeán, Armando

    to concept proof that is possible to use the Comprehensive Microarray Polymer Profiling (CoMPP) as a tool for other extracellular matrixes such as marine animals and not only for algal or plant cell walls. Thus, we discovered fucoidan and cellulose epitopes in several tissues of various marine animals from...... in cell development. Another part of this work focused in the development of a novel methodology for the discovery of unknown algal polysaccharides and characterization of carbohydrate binding proteins. Based on the coevolution between alga and marine saprophytic microorganisms, which use the algal...

  6. Analysis of chemical components from plant tissue samples

    Science.gov (United States)

    Laseter, J. L.

    1972-01-01

    Information is given on the type and concentration of sterols, free fatty acids, and total fatty acids in plant tissue samples. All samples were analyzed by gas chromatography and then by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry combination. In each case the mass spectral data was accumulated as a computer printout and plot. Typical gas chromatograms are included as well as tables describing test results.

  7. The EADGENE Microarray Data Analysis Workshop

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    de Koning, Dirk-Jan; Jaffrézic, Florence; Lund, Mogens Sandø

    2007-01-01

    Microarray analyses have become an important tool in animal genomics. While their use is becoming widespread, there is still a lot of ongoing research regarding the analysis of microarray data. In the context of a European Network of Excellence, 31 researchers representing 14 research groups from...... 10 countries performed and discussed the statistical analyses of real and simulated 2-colour microarray data that were distributed among participants. The real data consisted of 48 microarrays from a disease challenge experiment in dairy cattle, while the simulated data consisted of 10 microarrays...... statistical weights, to omitting a large number of spots or omitting entire slides. Surprisingly, these very different approaches gave quite similar results when applied to the simulated data, although not all participating groups analysed both real and simulated data. The workshop was very successful...

  8. Expression of BMI-1 and Mel-18 in breast tissue--a diagnostic marker in patients with breast cancer.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Riis, Margit L H; Lüders, Torben; Nesbakken, Anne-Jorunn; Vollan, Hilde S; Kristensen, Vessela; Bukholm, Ida R K

    2010-12-16

    Polycomb Group (PcG) proteins are epigenetic silencers involved in maintaining cellular identity, and their deregulation can result in cancer. Expression of Mel-18 and Bmi-1 has been studied in tumor tissue, but not in adjacent non-cancerous breast epithelium. Our study compares the expression of the two genes in normal breast epithelium of cancer patients and relates it to the level of expression in the corresponding tumors as well as in breast epithelium of healthy women. A total of 79 tumors, of which 71 malignant tumors of the breast, 6 fibroadenomas, and 2 DCIS were studied and compared to the reduction mammoplastic specimens of 11 healthy women. In addition there was available adjacent cancer free tissue for 23 of the malignant tumors. The tissue samples were stored in RNAlater, RNA was isolated to create expression microarray profile. These two genes were then studied more closely first on mRNA transcription level by microarrays (Agilent 44 K) and quantitative RT-PCR (TaqMan) and then on protein expression level using immunohistochemistry. Bmi-1 mRNA is significantly up-regulated in adjacent normal breast tissue in breast cancer patients compared to normal breast tissue from noncancerous patients. Conversely, mRNA transcription level of Mel-18 is lower in normal breast from patients operated for breast cancer compared to breast tissue from mammoplasty. When protein expression of these two genes was evaluated, we observed that most of the epithelial cells were positive for Bmi-1 in both groups of tissue samples, although the expression intensity was stronger in normal tissue from cancer patients compared to mammoplasty tissue samples. Protein expression of Mel-18 showed inversely stronger intensity in tissue samples from mammoplasty compared to normal breast tissue from patients operated for breast cancer. Bmi-1 mRNA level is consistently increased and Mel-18 mRNA level is consistently decreased in adjacent normal breast tissue of cancer patients as compared

  9. Assessment of centrifugation using for accelerated immunological microarray analysis for blood cells investigation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    A. V. Shishkin

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available Phase of incubation microarray with cell suspension is prolonged when cells are investigated. It takes from 20 to 60 min if cell sedimentation on the surface of microarray is the result of gravity . Decrease of this stage duration is possible due to centrifugation. In th is article influence of centrifugation on results of analysis is considered. Changes of morphological description of cells are estimated when they a re precipitatedwith different acceleration. Also availability of centrifugation using when it is necessary to obtain the high density of cell binding in test regions of microarray if cells concentration in sample is small is demonstrated.

  10. GeLC-MS: A Sample Preparation Method for Proteomics Analysis of Minimal Amount of Tissue.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Makridakis, Manousos; Vlahou, Antonia

    2017-10-10

    Application of various proteomics methodologies have been implemented for the global and targeted proteome analysis of many different types of biological samples such as tissue, urine, plasma, serum, blood, and cell lines. Among the aforementioned biological samples, tissue has an exceptional role into clinical research and practice. Disease initiation and progression is usually located at the tissue level of different organs, making the analysis of this material very important for the understanding of the disease pathophysiology. Despite the significant advances in the mass spectrometry instrumentation, tissue proteomics still faces several challenges mainly due to increased sample complexity and heterogeneity. However, the most prominent challenge is attributed to the invasive procedure of tissue sampling which restricts the availability of fresh frozen tissue to minimal amounts and limited number of samples. Application of GeLC-MS sample preparation protocol for tissue proteomics analysis can greatly facilitate making up for these difficulties. In this chapter, a step by step guide for the proteomics analysis of minute amounts of tissue samples using the GeLC-MS sample preparation protocol, as applied by our group in the analysis of multiple different types of tissues (vessels, kidney, bladder, prostate, heart) is provided.

  11. Multiplexed Analysis of Serum Breast and Ovarian Cancer Markers by Means of Suspension Bead-quantum Dot Microarrays

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brazhnik, Kristina; Sokolova, Zinaida; Baryshnikova, Maria; Bilan, Regina; Nabiev, Igor; Sukhanova, Alyona

    Multiplexed analysis of cancer markers is crucial for early tumor diagnosis and screening. We have designed lab-on-a-bead microarray for quantitative detection of three breast cancer markers in human serum. Quantum dots were used as bead-bound fluorescent tags for identifying each marker by means of flow cytometry. Antigen-specific beads reliably detected CA 15-3, CEA, and CA 125 in serum samples, providing clear discrimination between the samples with respect to the antigen levels. The novel microarray is advantageous over the routine single-analyte ones due to the simultaneous detection of various markers. Therefore the developed microarray is a promising tool for serum tumor marker profiling.

  12. Final LDRD report : development of sample preparation methods for ChIPMA-based imaging mass spectrometry of tissue samples.

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Maharrey, Sean P.; Highley, Aaron M.; Behrens, Richard, Jr.; Wiese-Smith, Deneille

    2007-12-01

    The objective of this short-term LDRD project was to acquire the tools needed to use our chemical imaging precision mass analyzer (ChIPMA) instrument to analyze tissue samples. This effort was an outgrowth of discussions with oncologists on the need to find the cellular origin of signals in mass spectra of serum samples, which provide biomarkers for ovarian cancer. The ultimate goal would be to collect chemical images of biopsy samples allowing the chemical images of diseased and nondiseased sections of a sample to be compared. The equipment needed to prepare tissue samples have been acquired and built. This equipment includes an cyro-ultramicrotome for preparing thin sections of samples and a coating unit. The coating unit uses an electrospray system to deposit small droplets of a UV-photo absorbing compound on the surface of the tissue samples. Both units are operational. The tissue sample must be coated with the organic compound to enable matrix assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) and matrix enhanced secondary ion mass spectrometry (ME-SIMS) measurements with the ChIPMA instrument Initial plans to test the sample preparation using human tissue samples required development of administrative procedures beyond the scope of this LDRD. Hence, it was decided to make two types of measurements: (1) Testing the spatial resolution of ME-SIMS by preparing a substrate coated with a mixture of an organic matrix and a bio standard and etching a defined pattern in the coating using a liquid metal ion beam, and (2) preparing and imaging C. elegans worms. Difficulties arose in sectioning the C. elegans for analysis and funds and time to overcome these difficulties were not available in this project. The facilities are now available for preparing biological samples for analysis with the ChIPMA instrument. Some further investment of time and resources in sample preparation should make this a useful tool for chemical imaging applications.

  13. Testing a Microarray to Detect and Monitor Toxic Microalgae in Arcachon Bay in France

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Linda K. Medlin

    2013-03-01

    Full Text Available Harmful algal blooms (HABs occur worldwide, causing health problems and economic damages to fisheries and tourism. Monitoring agencies are therefore essential, yet monitoring is based only on time-consuming light microscopy, a level at which a correct identification can be limited by insufficient morphological characters. The project MIDTAL (Microarray Detection of Toxic Algae—an FP7-funded EU project—used rRNA genes (SSU and LSU as a target on microarrays to identify toxic species. Furthermore, toxins were detected with a newly developed multiplex optical Surface Plasmon Resonance biosensor (Multi SPR and compared with an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA. In this study, we demonstrate the latest generation of MIDTAL microarrays (version 3 and show the correlation between cell counts, detected toxin and microarray signals from field samples taken in Arcachon Bay in France in 2011. The MIDTAL microarray always detected more potentially toxic species than those detected by microscopic counts. The toxin detection was even more sensitive than both methods. Because of the universal nature of both toxin and species microarrays, they can be used to detect invasive species. Nevertheless, the MIDTAL microarray is not completely universal: first, because not all toxic species are on the chip, and second, because invasive species, such as Ostreopsis, already influence European coasts.

  14. Effects of Re-heating Tissue Samples to Core Body Temperature on High-Velocity Ballistic Projectile-tissue Interactions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Humphrey, Caitlin; Henneberg, Maciej; Wachsberger, Christian; Maiden, Nicholas; Kumaratilake, Jaliya

    2017-11-01

    Damage produced by high-speed projectiles on organic tissue will depend on the physical properties of the tissues. Conditioning organic tissue samples to human core body temperature (37°C) prior to conducting ballistic experiments enables their behavior to closely mimic that of living tissues. To minimize autolytic changes after death, the tissues are refrigerated soon after their removal from the body and re-heated to 37°C prior to testing. This research investigates whether heating 50-mm-cube samples of porcine liver, kidney, and heart to 37°C for varying durations (maximum 7 h) can affect the penetration response of a high-speed, steel sphere projectile. Longer conditioning times for heart and liver resulted in a slight loss of velocity/energy of the projectile, but the reverse effect occurred for the kidney. Possible reasons for these trends include autolytic changes causing softening (heart and liver) and dehydration causing an increase in density (kidney). © 2017 American Academy of Forensic Sciences.

  15. MULTI-K: accurate classification of microarray subtypes using ensemble k-means clustering

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ashlock Daniel

    2009-08-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Uncovering subtypes of disease from microarray samples has important clinical implications such as survival time and sensitivity of individual patients to specific therapies. Unsupervised clustering methods have been used to classify this type of data. However, most existing methods focus on clusters with compact shapes and do not reflect the geometric complexity of the high dimensional microarray clusters, which limits their performance. Results We present a cluster-number-based ensemble clustering algorithm, called MULTI-K, for microarray sample classification, which demonstrates remarkable accuracy. The method amalgamates multiple k-means runs by varying the number of clusters and identifies clusters that manifest the most robust co-memberships of elements. In addition to the original algorithm, we newly devised the entropy-plot to control the separation of singletons or small clusters. MULTI-K, unlike the simple k-means or other widely used methods, was able to capture clusters with complex and high-dimensional structures accurately. MULTI-K outperformed other methods including a recently developed ensemble clustering algorithm in tests with five simulated and eight real gene-expression data sets. Conclusion The geometric complexity of clusters should be taken into account for accurate classification of microarray data, and ensemble clustering applied to the number of clusters tackles the problem very well. The C++ code and the data sets tested are available from the authors.

  16. MULTI-K: accurate classification of microarray subtypes using ensemble k-means clustering.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kim, Eun-Youn; Kim, Seon-Young; Ashlock, Daniel; Nam, Dougu

    2009-08-22

    Uncovering subtypes of disease from microarray samples has important clinical implications such as survival time and sensitivity of individual patients to specific therapies. Unsupervised clustering methods have been used to classify this type of data. However, most existing methods focus on clusters with compact shapes and do not reflect the geometric complexity of the high dimensional microarray clusters, which limits their performance. We present a cluster-number-based ensemble clustering algorithm, called MULTI-K, for microarray sample classification, which demonstrates remarkable accuracy. The method amalgamates multiple k-means runs by varying the number of clusters and identifies clusters that manifest the most robust co-memberships of elements. In addition to the original algorithm, we newly devised the entropy-plot to control the separation of singletons or small clusters. MULTI-K, unlike the simple k-means or other widely used methods, was able to capture clusters with complex and high-dimensional structures accurately. MULTI-K outperformed other methods including a recently developed ensemble clustering algorithm in tests with five simulated and eight real gene-expression data sets. The geometric complexity of clusters should be taken into account for accurate classification of microarray data, and ensemble clustering applied to the number of clusters tackles the problem very well. The C++ code and the data sets tested are available from the authors.

  17. Ewing's Sarcoma: An Analysis of miRNA Expression Profiles and Target Genes in Paraffin-Embedded Primary Tumor Tissue.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Parafioriti, Antonina; Bason, Caterina; Armiraglio, Elisabetta; Calciano, Lucia; Daolio, Primo Andrea; Berardocco, Martina; Di Bernardo, Andrea; Colosimo, Alessia; Luksch, Roberto; Berardi, Anna C

    2016-04-30

    The molecular mechanism responsible for Ewing's Sarcoma (ES) remains largely unknown. MicroRNAs (miRNAs), a class of small non-coding RNAs able to regulate gene expression, are deregulated in tumors and may serve as a tool for diagnosis and prediction. However, the status of miRNAs in ES has not yet been thoroughly investigated. This study compared global miRNAs expression in paraffin-embedded tumor tissue samples from 20 ES patients, affected by primary untreated tumors, with miRNAs expressed in normal human mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) by microarray analysis. A miRTarBase database was used to identify the predicted target genes for differentially expressed miRNAs. The miRNAs microarray analysis revealed distinct patterns of miRNAs expression between ES samples and normal MSCs. 58 of the 954 analyzed miRNAs were significantly differentially expressed in ES samples compared to MSCs. Moreover, the qRT-PCR analysis carried out on three selected miRNAs showed that miR-181b, miR-1915 and miR-1275 were significantly aberrantly regulated, confirming the microarray results. Bio-database analysis identified BCL-2 as a bona fide target gene of the miR-21, miR-181a, miR-181b, miR-29a, miR-29b, miR-497, miR-195, miR-let-7a, miR-34a and miR-1915. Using paraffin-embedded tissues from ES patients, this study has identified several potential target miRNAs and one gene that might be considered a novel critical biomarker for ES pathogenesis.

  18. Preservation and rapid purification of DNA from decomposing human tissue samples.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sorensen, Amy; Rahman, Elizabeth; Canela, Cassandra; Gangitano, David; Hughes-Stamm, Sheree

    2016-11-01

    One of the key features to be considered in a mass disaster is victim identification. However, the recovery and identification of human remains are sometimes complicated by harsh environmental conditions, limited facilities, loss of electricity and lack of refrigeration. If human remains cannot be collected, stored, or identified immediately, bodies decompose and DNA degrades making genotyping more difficult and ultimately decreasing DNA profiling success. In order to prevent further DNA damage and degradation after collection, tissue preservatives may be used. The goal of this study was to evaluate three customized (modified TENT, DESS, LST) and two commercial DNA preservatives (RNAlater and DNAgard ® ) on fresh and decomposed human skin and muscle samples stored in hot (35°C) and humid (60-70% relative humidity) conditions for up to three months. Skin and muscle samples were harvested from the thigh of three human cadavers placed outdoors for up to two weeks. In addition, the possibility of purifying DNA directly from the preservative solutions ("free DNA") was investigated in order to eliminate lengthy tissue digestion processes and increase throughput. The efficiency of each preservative was evaluated based on the quantity of DNA recovered from both the "free DNA" in solution and the tissue sample itself in conjunction with the quality and completeness of downstream STR profiles. As expected, DNA quantity and STR success decreased with time of decomposition. However, a marked decrease in DNA quantity and STR quality was observed in all samples after the bodies entered the bloat stage (approximately six days of decomposition in this study). Similar amounts of DNA were retrieved from skin and muscle samples over time, but slightly more complete STR profiles were obtained from muscle tissue. Although higher amounts of DNA were recovered from tissue samples than from the surrounding preservative, the average number of reportable alleles from the "free DNA" was

  19. Evaluation of gene importance in microarray data based upon probability of selection

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fu Li M

    2005-03-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Microarray devices permit a genome-scale evaluation of gene function. This technology has catalyzed biomedical research and development in recent years. As many important diseases can be traced down to the gene level, a long-standing research problem is to identify specific gene expression patterns linking to metabolic characteristics that contribute to disease development and progression. The microarray approach offers an expedited solution to this problem. However, it has posed a challenging issue to recognize disease-related genes expression patterns embedded in the microarray data. In selecting a small set of biologically significant genes for classifier design, the nature of high data dimensionality inherent in this problem creates substantial amount of uncertainty. Results Here we present a model for probability analysis of selected genes in order to determine their importance. Our contribution is that we show how to derive the P value of each selected gene in multiple gene selection trials based on different combinations of data samples and how to conduct a reliability analysis accordingly. The importance of a gene is indicated by its associated P value in that a smaller value implies higher information content from information theory. On the microarray data concerning the subtype classification of small round blue cell tumors, we demonstrate that the method is capable of finding the smallest set of genes (19 genes with optimal classification performance, compared with results reported in the literature. Conclusion In classifier design based on microarray data, the probability value derived from gene selection based on multiple combinations of data samples enables an effective mechanism for reducing the tendency of fitting local data particularities.

  20. Detection of a Yersinia pestis gene homologue in rodent samples

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Timothy A. Giles

    2016-08-01

    Full Text Available A homologue to a widely used genetic marker, pla, for Yersinia pestis has been identified in tissue samples of two species of rat (Rattus rattus and Rattus norvegicus and of mice (Mus musculus and Apodemus sylvaticus using a microarray based platform to screen for zoonotic pathogens of interest. Samples were from urban locations in the UK (Liverpool and Canada (Vancouver. The results indicate the presence of an unknown bacterium that shares a homologue for the pla gene of Yersinia pestis, so caution should be taken when using this gene as a diagnostic marker.

  1. Broad spectrum microarray for fingerprint-based bacterial species identification

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Frey Jürg E

    2010-02-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Microarrays are powerful tools for DNA-based molecular diagnostics and identification of pathogens. Most target a limited range of organisms and are based on only one or a very few genes for specific identification. Such microarrays are limited to organisms for which specific probes are available, and often have difficulty discriminating closely related taxa. We have developed an alternative broad-spectrum microarray that employs hybridisation fingerprints generated by high-density anonymous markers distributed over the entire genome for identification based on comparison to a reference database. Results A high-density microarray carrying 95,000 unique 13-mer probes was designed. Optimized methods were developed to deliver reproducible hybridisation patterns that enabled confident discrimination of bacteria at the species, subspecies, and strain levels. High correlation coefficients were achieved between replicates. A sub-selection of 12,071 probes, determined by ANOVA and class prediction analysis, enabled the discrimination of all samples in our panel. Mismatch probe hybridisation was observed but was found to have no effect on the discriminatory capacity of our system. Conclusions These results indicate the potential of our genome chip for reliable identification of a wide range of bacterial taxa at the subspecies level without laborious prior sequencing and probe design. With its high resolution capacity, our proof-of-principle chip demonstrates great potential as a tool for molecular diagnostics of broad taxonomic groups.

  2. Elemental distribution and sample integrity comparison of freeze-dried and frozen-hydrated biological tissue samples with nuclear microprobe

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Vavpetič, P., E-mail: primoz.vavpetic@ijs.si [Jožef Stefan Institute, Jamova 39, SI-1000 Ljubljana (Slovenia); Vogel-Mikuš, K. [Biotechnical Faculty, Department of Biology, University of Ljubljana, Jamnikarjeva 101, SI-1000 Ljubljana (Slovenia); Jeromel, L. [Jožef Stefan Institute, Jamova 39, SI-1000 Ljubljana (Slovenia); Ogrinc Potočnik, N. [Jožef Stefan Institute, Jamova 39, SI-1000 Ljubljana (Slovenia); FOM-Institute AMOLF, Science Park 104, 1098 XG Amsterdam (Netherlands); Pongrac, P. [Biotechnical Faculty, Department of Biology, University of Ljubljana, Jamnikarjeva 101, SI-1000 Ljubljana (Slovenia); Department of Plant Physiology, University of Bayreuth, Universitätstr. 30, 95447 Bayreuth (Germany); Drobne, D.; Pipan Tkalec, Ž.; Novak, S.; Kos, M.; Koren, Š.; Regvar, M. [Biotechnical Faculty, Department of Biology, University of Ljubljana, Jamnikarjeva 101, SI-1000 Ljubljana (Slovenia); Pelicon, P. [Jožef Stefan Institute, Jamova 39, SI-1000 Ljubljana (Slovenia)

    2015-04-01

    The analysis of biological samples in frozen-hydrated state with micro-PIXE technique at Jožef Stefan Institute (JSI) nuclear microprobe has matured to a point that enables us to measure and examine frozen tissue samples routinely as a standard research method. Cryotome-cut slice of frozen-hydrated biological sample is mounted between two thin foils and positioned on the sample holder. The temperature of the cold stage in the measuring chamber is kept below 130 K throughout the insertion of the samples and the proton beam exposure. Matrix composition of frozen-hydrated tissue is consisted mostly of ice. Sample deterioration during proton beam exposure is monitored during the experiment, as both Elastic Backscattering Spectrometry (EBS) and Scanning Transmission Ion Microscopy (STIM) in on–off axis geometry are recorded together with the events in two PIXE detectors and backscattered ions from the chopper in a single list-mode file. The aim of this experiment was to determine differences and similarities between two kinds of biological sample preparation techniques for micro-PIXE analysis, namely freeze-drying and frozen-hydrated sample preparation in order to evaluate the improvements in the elemental localisation of the latter technique if any. In the presented work, a standard micro-PIXE configuration for tissue mapping at JSI was used with five detection systems operating in parallel, with proton beam cross section of 1.0 × 1.0 μm{sup 2} and a beam current of 100 pA. The comparison of the resulting elemental distributions measured at the biological tissue prepared in the frozen-hydrated and in the freeze-dried state revealed differences in elemental distribution of particular elements at the cellular level due to the morphology alteration in particular tissue compartments induced either by water removal in the lyophilisation process or by unsatisfactory preparation of samples for cutting and mounting during the shock-freezing phase of sample preparation.

  3. Measurement of indicator genes using global complementary DNA (cDNA) amplification, by polyadenylic acid reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (poly A RT-PCR): A feasibility study using paired samples from tissue and ductal juice in patients undergoing pancreatoduodenectomy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sanyal, Sudip; Siriwardena, Ajith K; Byers, Richard

    2018-06-01

    The aim of this study is to compare gene expression profiles in RNA isolated from pancreatic ductal juice with the RNA expression profiles of the same genes from matched intra-operative tissue samples from pancreatic tumours. Intra-operative sampling of pancreatic juice and collection of matched tissue samples was undertaken in patients undergoing pancreatoduodenectomy for clinically suspected pancreatic cancer and a precursor lesion, main-duct intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm. RNA was isolated and Poly A PCR was used to globally amplify the RNA. Real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was used to measure expression levels of 17 genes selected from microarray studies. Spearman's rank correlation test was used to examine the relationship of gene expression between pancreatic juice and tissue. The study was approved by Regional Ethics Committee. Mesothelin (MSLN) showed significant correlation (p cDNA using poly A PCR is technically feasible. Application of the technique to non-invasively obtained pancreatic juice during endoscopic assessment of tumours and the use of gene arrays of cancer indicator genes are the next steps in development of this technique. Copyright © 2018 IAP and EPC. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  4. Examination of gene expression in mice exposed to low dose radiation using affymetrix cDNA microarrays

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Morris, D.; Knox, D.; Lavoie, J.; Lemon, J.; Boreham, D. [McMaster Univ., Hamilton, Ontario (Canada)

    2005-07-01

    'Full text:' Gamma radiation acts via the indirect effect to damage cells by producing reactive oxygen species (ROS). These ROS are capable damaging macromolecules and, altering signal pathways and gene transcription. Cells have evolved enzymes and mechanisms to scavenge ROS and repair oxidative damage. Microarrays allow the survey of the gene transcription activity of thousands of genes simultaneously. Messenger RNA is extracted from cells, hybridized with the complementary DNA (cDNA) of a microarray chip, and examined with a chip reader. Affymetrix microarray chips have been produced by the CSCHAH in Winnipeg containing 26000 murine genes. Groups of female mice have been exposed to low dose whole body chronic gamma radiation exposures of 0,50,100, and 120 mGy, corresponding to 15,30,60, and 75 weeks, respectively. MRNA from mice brain tissue has been extracted, isolated, converted to cDNA and labeled. Gene expression in each irradiated mouse was compared to the pooled expression of the control mice. Analysis of gene expression levels are performed with microarray analytical software, Array Pro by Media Cybernetics, and powerful statistical software, BRB microarray tools. Differences in gene expressions, focusing on genes for cytokines, DNA repair mechanisms, immuno-modulators, apoptosis pathways, and enzymatic anti-oxidant systems, are being examined and will be reported. (author)

  5. Genome-scale cluster analysis of replicated microarrays using shrinkage correlation coefficient.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yao, Jianchao; Chang, Chunqi; Salmi, Mari L; Hung, Yeung Sam; Loraine, Ann; Roux, Stanley J

    2008-06-18

    Currently, clustering with some form of correlation coefficient as the gene similarity metric has become a popular method for profiling genomic data. The Pearson correlation coefficient and the standard deviation (SD)-weighted correlation coefficient are the two most widely-used correlations as the similarity metrics in clustering microarray data. However, these two correlations are not optimal for analyzing replicated microarray data generated by most laboratories. An effective correlation coefficient is needed to provide statistically sufficient analysis of replicated microarray data. In this study, we describe a novel correlation coefficient, shrinkage correlation coefficient (SCC), that fully exploits the similarity between the replicated microarray experimental samples. The methodology considers both the number of replicates and the variance within each experimental group in clustering expression data, and provides a robust statistical estimation of the error of replicated microarray data. The value of SCC is revealed by its comparison with two other correlation coefficients that are currently the most widely-used (Pearson correlation coefficient and SD-weighted correlation coefficient) using statistical measures on both synthetic expression data as well as real gene expression data from Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Two leading clustering methods, hierarchical and k-means clustering were applied for the comparison. The comparison indicated that using SCC achieves better clustering performance. Applying SCC-based hierarchical clustering to the replicated microarray data obtained from germinating spores of the fern Ceratopteris richardii, we discovered two clusters of genes with shared expression patterns during spore germination. Functional analysis suggested that some of the genetic mechanisms that control germination in such diverse plant lineages as mosses and angiosperms are also conserved among ferns. This study shows that SCC is an alternative to the Pearson

  6. Tissue microarray design and construction for scientific, industrial and diagnostic use

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Daniela Pilla

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available Context: In 2013 the high throughput technology known as Tissue Micro Array (TMA will be fifteen years old. Its elements (design, construction and analysis are intuitive and the core histopathology technique is unsophisticated, which may be a reason why has eluded a rigorous scientific scrutiny. The source of errors, particularly in specimen identification and how to control for it is unreported. Formal validation of the accuracy of segmenting (also known as de-arraying hundreds of samples, pairing with the sample data is lacking. Aims: We wanted to address these issues in order to bring the technique to recognized standards of quality in TMA use for research, diagnostics and industrial purposes. Results: We systematically addressed the sources of error and used barcode-driven data input throughout the whole process including matching the design with a TMA virtual image and segmenting that image back to individual cases, together with the associated data. In addition we demonstrate on mathematical grounds that a TMA design, when superimposed onto the corresponding whole slide image, validates on each and every sample the correspondence between the image and patient′s data. Conclusions: High throughput use of the TMA technology is a safe and efficient method for research, diagnosis and industrial use if all sources of errors are identified and addressed.

  7. Cell-cycle and suppressor proteins expression in uterine cervix in HIV/HPV co-infection: comparative study by tissue micro-array (TMA)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nicol, Alcina F; Pirmez, Claude; Pires, Andréa Rodrigues Cordovil; Souza, Simone R de; Nuovo, Gerard J; Grinsztejn, Beatriz; Tristão, Aparecida; Russomano, Fabio B; Velasque, Luciane; Silva, José R Lapa e

    2008-01-01

    The oncoproteins of human papillomavirus (HPVs) directly effect cell-cycle control. We hypothesize that regulatory and cell cycle protein expression might be additionally modified in the cervix of HIV/HPV co-infected women. We analyzed the expression of Rb, p27, VEGF and Elf-1 transcriptor factor by immunohistochemistry in 163 paraffin-embeded cervical samples using Tissue Micro-Array (TMA) and correlated this to HIV-1 and HPV infection. HIV/HPV co-infection was associated with a significant increase in expression (p < 0.001) of VEGF and p27 in both low and high grade CIN when compared to the cervices of women infected by HPV alone. Decreased Rb expression was evident with increased CIN grade in the cervices of women infected with HPV alone (p = 0.003 average of cells/mm 2 in CIN I: 17.9, CIN II/III: 4.8, and tumor 3.9). Rb expression increased 3-fold for both low and high grade CIN with HPV/HIV-1 co-infection compared to HPV infection alone but did not reach statistical significance. There was a significant increase in Elf-1 expression in HPV+/HIV- women with CIN II/III and tumor (average of cells/mm 2 in CIN I: 63.8; CIN II/III: 115.7 and tumor: 112.0, p = 0.005), in comparison to controls. Co-infection of HPV and HIV leads to significant increase in the VEGF and p27 expression when compared to HPV+/HIV-negative infection that could facilitate viral persistence and invasive tumor development

  8. Cell-cycle and suppressor proteins expression in uterine cervix in HIV/HPV co-infection: comparative study by tissue micro-array (TMA).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nicol, Alcina F; Pires, Andréa Rodrigues Cordovil; de Souza, Simone R; Nuovo, Gerard J; Grinsztejn, Beatriz; Tristão, Aparecida; Russomano, Fabio B; Velasque, Luciane; Lapa e Silva, José R; Pirmez, Claude

    2008-10-07

    The oncoproteins of human papillomavirus (HPVs) directly effect cell-cycle control. We hypothesize that regulatory and cell cycle protein expression might be additionally modified in the cervix of HIV/HPV co-infected women. We analyzed the expression of Rb, p27, VEGF and Elf-1 transcriptor factor by immunohistochemistry in 163 paraffin-embeded cervical samples using Tissue Micro-Array (TMA) and correlated this to HIV-1 and HPV infection. HIV/HPV co-infection was associated with a significant increase in expression (p < 0.001) of VEGF and p27 in both low and high grade CIN when compared to the cervices of women infected by HPV alone. Decreased Rb expression was evident with increased CIN grade in the cervices of women infected with HPV alone (p = 0.003 average of cells/mm2 in CIN I: 17.9, CIN II/III: 4.8, and tumor 3.9). Rb expression increased 3-fold for both low and high grade CIN with HPV/HIV-1 co-infection compared to HPV infection alone but did not reach statistical significance. There was a significant increase in Elf-1 expression in HPV+/HIV- women with CIN II/III and tumor (average of cells/mm2 in CIN I: 63.8; CIN II/III: 115.7 and tumor: 112.0, p = 0.005), in comparison to controls. Co-infection of HPV and HIV leads to significant increase in the VEGF and p27 expression when compared to HPV+/HIV-negative infection that could facilitate viral persistence and invasive tumor development.

  9. Overview on Techniques to Construct Tissue Arrays with Special Emphasis on Tissue Microarrays

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vogel, Ulrich

    2014-01-01

    With the advent of new histopathological staining techniques (histochemistry, immunohistochemistry, in situ hybridization) and the discovery of thousands of new genes, mRNA, and proteins by molecular biology, the need grew for a technique to compare many different cells or tissues on one slide in a cost effective manner and with the possibility to easily track the identity of each specimen: the tissue array (TA). Basically, a TA consists of at least two different specimens per slide. TAs differ in the kind of specimens, the number of specimens installed, the dimension of the specimens, the arrangement of the specimens, the embedding medium, the technique to prepare the specimens to be installed, and the technique to construct the TA itself. A TA can be constructed by arranging the tissue specimens in a mold and subsequently pouring the mold with the embedding medium of choice. In contrast, preformed so-called recipient blocks consisting of the embedding medium of choice have punched, drilled, or poured holes of different diameters and distances in which the cells or tissue biopsies will be deployed manually, semi-automatically, or automatically. The costs of constructing a TA differ from a few to thousands of Euros depending on the technique/equipment used. Remarkably high quality TAs can be also achieved by low cost techniques. PMID:27600339

  10. Integration of microarray analysis into the clinical diagnosis of hematological malignancies: How much can we improve cytogenetic testing?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Peterson, Jess F.; Aggarwal, Nidhi; Smith, Clayton A.; Gollin, Susanne M.; Surti, Urvashi; Rajkovic, Aleksandar; Swerdlow, Steven H.; Yatsenko, Svetlana A.

    2015-01-01

    Purpose To evaluate the clinical utility, diagnostic yield and rationale of integrating microarray analysis in the clinical diagnosis of hematological malignancies in comparison with classical chromosome karyotyping/fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH). Methods G-banded chromosome analysis, FISH and microarray studies using customized CGH and CGH+SNP designs were performed on 27 samples from patients with hematological malignancies. A comprehensive comparison of the results obtained by three methods was conducted to evaluate benefits and limitations of these techniques for clinical diagnosis. Results Overall, 89.7% of chromosomal abnormalities identified by karyotyping/FISH studies were also detectable by microarray. Among 183 acquired copy number alterations (CNAs) identified by microarray, 94 were additional findings revealed in 14 cases (52%), and at least 30% of CNAs were in genomic regions of diagnostic/prognostic significance. Approximately 30% of novel alterations detected by microarray were >20 Mb in size. Balanced abnormalities were not detected by microarray; however, of the 19 apparently “balanced” rearrangements, 55% (6/11) of recurrent and 13% (1/8) of non-recurrent translocations had alterations at the breakpoints discovered by microarray. Conclusion Microarray technology enables accurate, cost-effective and time-efficient whole-genome analysis at a resolution significantly higher than that of conventional karyotyping and FISH. Array-CGH showed advantage in identification of cryptic imbalances and detection of clonal aberrations in population of non-dividing cancer cells and samples with poor chromosome morphology. The integration of microarray analysis into the cytogenetic diagnosis of hematologic malignancies has the potential to improve patient management by providing clinicians with additional disease specific and potentially clinically actionable genomic alterations. PMID:26299921

  11. DNA microarrays : a molecular cloning manual

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Sambrook, Joseph; Bowtell, David

    2002-01-01

    .... DNA Microarrays provides authoritative, detailed instruction on the design, construction, and applications of microarrays, as well as comprehensive descriptions of the software tools and strategies...

  12. Clinical relevance of DNA microarray analyses using archival formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded breast cancer specimens

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sadi, Al Muktafi; Wang, Dong-Yu; Youngson, Bruce J; Miller, Naomi; Boerner, Scott; Done, Susan J; Leong, Wey L

    2011-01-01

    The ability of gene profiling to predict treatment response and prognosis in breast cancers has been demonstrated in many studies using DNA microarray analyses on RNA from fresh frozen tumor specimens. In certain clinical and research situations, performing such analyses on archival formalin fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) surgical specimens would be advantageous as large libraries of such specimens with long-term follow-up data are widely available. However, FFPE tissue processing can cause fragmentation and chemical modifications of the RNA. A number of recent technical advances have been reported to overcome these issues. Our current study evaluates whether or not the technology is ready for clinical applications. A modified RNA extraction method and a recent DNA microarray technique, cDNA-mediated annealing, selection, extension and ligation (DASL, Illumina Inc) were evaluated. The gene profiles generated from FFPE specimens were compared to those obtained from paired fresh fine needle aspiration biopsies (FNAB) of 25 breast cancers of different clinical subtypes (based on ER and Her2/neu status). Selected RNA levels were validated using RT-qPCR, and two public databases were used to demonstrate the prognostic significance of the gene profiles generated from FFPE specimens. Compared to FNAB, RNA isolated from FFPE samples was relatively more degraded, nonetheless, over 80% of the RNA samples were deemed suitable for subsequent DASL assay. Despite a higher noise level, a set of genes from FFPE specimens correlated very well with the gene profiles obtained from FNAB, and could differentiate breast cancer subtypes. Expression levels of these genes were validated using RT-qPCR. Finally, for the first time we correlated gene expression profiles from FFPE samples to survival using two independent microarray databases. Specifically, over-expression of ANLN and KIF2C, and under-expression of MAPT strongly correlated with poor outcomes in breast cancer patients. We

  13. Current Knowledge on Microarray Technology - An Overview

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Erah

    This paper reviews basics and updates of each microarray technology and serves to .... through protein microarrays. Protein microarrays also known as protein chips are nothing but grids that ... conditioned media, patient sera, plasma and urine. Clontech ... based antibody arrays) is similar to membrane-based antibody ...

  14. Diagnostic and analytical applications of protein microarrays

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Dufva, Hans Martin; Christensen, C.B.V.

    2005-01-01

    DNA microarrays have changed the field of biomedical sciences over the past 10 years. For several reasons, antibody and other protein microarrays have not developed at the same rate. However, protein and antibody arrays have emerged as a powerful tool to complement DNA microarrays during the post...

  15. Methodological Challenges in Protein Microarray and Immunohistochemistry for the Discovery of Novel Autoantibodies in Paediatric Acute Disseminated Encephalomyelitis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Peschl, Patrick; Ramberger, Melanie; Höftberger, Romana; Jöhrer, Karin; Baumann, Matthias; Rostásy, Kevin; Reindl, Markus

    2017-01-01

    Acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM) is a rare autoimmune-mediated demyelinating disease affecting mainly children and young adults. Differentiation to multiple sclerosis is not always possible, due to overlapping clinical symptoms and recurrent and multiphasic forms. Until now, immunoglobulins reactive to myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein (MOG antibodies) have been found in a subset of patients with ADEM. However, there are still patients lacking autoantibodies, necessitating the identification of new autoantibodies as biomarkers in those patients. Therefore, we aimed to identify novel autoantibody targets in ADEM patients. Sixteen ADEM patients (11 seronegative, 5 seropositive for MOG antibodies) were analysed for potential new biomarkers, using a protein microarray and immunohistochemistry on rat brain tissue to identify antibodies against intracellular and surface neuronal and glial antigens. Nine candidate antigens were identified in the protein microarray analysis in at least two patients per group. Immunohistochemistry on rat brain tissue did not reveal new target antigens. Although no new autoantibody targets could be found here, future studies should aim to identify new biomarkers for therapeutic and prognostic purposes. The microarray analysis and immunohistochemistry methods used here have several limitations, which should be considered in future searches for biomarkers. PMID:28327523

  16. Comparing transformation methods for DNA microarray data

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    Zwinderman Aeilko H

    2004-06-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background When DNA microarray data are used for gene clustering, genotype/phenotype correlation studies, or tissue classification the signal intensities are usually transformed and normalized in several steps in order to improve comparability and signal/noise ratio. These steps may include subtraction of an estimated background signal, subtracting the reference signal, smoothing (to account for nonlinear measurement effects, and more. Different authors use different approaches, and it is generally not clear to users which method they should prefer. Results We used the ratio between biological variance and measurement variance (which is an F-like statistic as a quality measure for transformation methods, and we demonstrate a method for maximizing that variance ratio on real data. We explore a number of transformations issues, including Box-Cox transformation, baseline shift, partial subtraction of the log-reference signal and smoothing. It appears that the optimal choice of parameters for the transformation methods depends on the data. Further, the behavior of the variance ratio, under the null hypothesis of zero biological variance, appears to depend on the choice of parameters. Conclusions The use of replicates in microarray experiments is important. Adjustment for the null-hypothesis behavior of the variance ratio is critical to the selection of transformation method.

  17. Hybrid Feature Selection Approach Based on GRASP for Cancer Microarray Data

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    Arpita Nagpal

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Microarray data usually contain a large number of genes, but a small number of samples. Feature subset selection for microarray data aims at reducing the number of genes so that useful information can be extracted from the samples. Reducing the dimension of data sets further helps in improving the computational efficiency of the learning model. In this paper, we propose a modified algorithm based on the tabu search as local search procedures to a Greedy Randomized Adaptive Search Procedure (GRASP for high dimensional microarray data sets. The proposed Tabu based Greedy Randomized Adaptive Search Procedure algorithm is named as TGRASP. In TGRASP, a new parameter has been introduced named as Tabu Tenure and the existing parameters, NumIter and size have been modified. We observed that different parameter settings affect the quality of the optimum. The second proposed algorithm known as FFGRASP (Firefly Greedy Randomized Adaptive Search Procedure uses a firefly optimization algorithm in the local search optimzation phase of the greedy randomized adaptive search procedure (GRASP. Firefly algorithm is one of the powerful algorithms for optimization of multimodal applications. Experimental results show that the proposed TGRASP and FFGRASP algorithms are much better than existing algorithm with respect to three performance parameters viz. accuracy, run time, number of a selected subset of features. We have also compared both the approaches with a unified metric (Extended Adjusted Ratio of Ratios which has shown that TGRASP approach outperforms existing approach for six out of nine cancer microarray datasets and FFGRASP performs better on seven out of nine datasets.

  18. The MGED Ontology: a resource for semantics-based description of microarray experiments.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Whetzel, Patricia L; Parkinson, Helen; Causton, Helen C; Fan, Liju; Fostel, Jennifer; Fragoso, Gilberto; Game, Laurence; Heiskanen, Mervi; Morrison, Norman; Rocca-Serra, Philippe; Sansone, Susanna-Assunta; Taylor, Chris; White, Joseph; Stoeckert, Christian J

    2006-04-01

    The generation of large amounts of microarray data and the need to share these data bring challenges for both data management and annotation and highlights the need for standards. MIAME specifies the minimum information needed to describe a microarray experiment and the Microarray Gene Expression Object Model (MAGE-OM) and resulting MAGE-ML provide a mechanism to standardize data representation for data exchange, however a common terminology for data annotation is needed to support these standards. Here we describe the MGED Ontology (MO) developed by the Ontology Working Group of the Microarray Gene Expression Data (MGED) Society. The MO provides terms for annotating all aspects of a microarray experiment from the design of the experiment and array layout, through to the preparation of the biological sample and the protocols used to hybridize the RNA and analyze the data. The MO was developed to provide terms for annotating experiments in line with the MIAME guidelines, i.e. to provide the semantics to describe a microarray experiment according to the concepts specified in MIAME. The MO does not attempt to incorporate terms from existing ontologies, e.g. those that deal with anatomical parts or developmental stages terms, but provides a framework to reference terms in other ontologies and therefore facilitates the use of ontologies in microarray data annotation. The MGED Ontology version.1.2.0 is available as a file in both DAML and OWL formats at http://mged.sourceforge.net/ontologies/index.php. Release notes and annotation examples are provided. The MO is also provided via the NCICB's Enterprise Vocabulary System (http://nciterms.nci.nih.gov/NCIBrowser/Dictionary.do). Stoeckrt@pcbi.upenn.edu Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

  19. Systematic gene microarray analysis of the lncRNA expression profiles in human uterine cervix carcinoma.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Jie; Fu, Ziyi; Ji, Chenbo; Gu, Pingqing; Xu, Pengfei; Yu, Ningzhu; Kan, Yansheng; Wu, Xiaowei; Shen, Rong; Shen, Yan

    2015-05-01

    The human uterine cervix carcinoma is one of the most well-known malignancy reproductive system cancers, which threatens women health globally. However, the mechanisms of the oncogenesis and development process of cervix carcinoma are not yet fully understood. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been proved to play key roles in various biological processes, especially development of cancer. The function and mechanism of lncRNAs on cervix carcinoma is still rarely reported. We selected 3 cervix cancer and normal cervix tissues separately, then performed lncRNA microarray to detect the differentially expressed lncRNAs. Subsequently, we explored the potential function of these dysregulated lncRNAs through online bioinformatics databases. Finally, quantity real-time PCR was carried out to confirm the expression levels of these dysregulated lncRNAs in cervix cancer and normal tissues. We uncovered the profiles of differentially expressed lncRNAs between normal and cervix carcinoma tissues by using the microarray techniques, and found 1622 upregulated and 3026 downregulated lncRNAs (fold-change>2.0) in cervix carcinoma compared to the normal cervical tissue. Furthermore, we found HOXA11-AS might participate in cervix carcinogenesis by regulating HOXA11, which is involved in regulating biological processes of cervix cancer. This study afforded expression profiles of lncRNAs between cervix carcinoma tissue and normal cervical tissue, which could provide database for further research about the function and mechanism of key-lncRNAs in cervix carcinoma, and might be helpful to explore potential diagnosis factors and therapeutic targets for cervix carcinoma. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

  20. Assessing probe-specific dye and slide biases in two-color microarray data

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    Goldberg Zelanna

    2008-07-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background A primary reason for using two-color microarrays is that the use of two samples labeled with different dyes on the same slide, that bind to probes on the same spot, is supposed to adjust for many factors that introduce noise and errors into the analysis. Most users assume that any differences between the dyes can be adjusted out by standard methods of normalization, so that measures such as log ratios on the same slide are reliable measures of comparative expression. However, even after the normalization, there are still probe specific dye and slide variation among the data. We define a method to quantify the amount of the dye-by-probe and slide-by-probe interaction. This serves as a diagnostic, both visual and numeric, of the existence of probe-specific dye bias. We show how this improved the performance of two-color array analysis for arrays for genomic analysis of biological samples ranging from rice to human tissue. Results We develop a procedure for quantifying the extent of probe-specific dye and slide bias in two-color microarrays. The primary output is a graphical diagnostic of the extent of the bias which called ECDF (Empirical Cumulative Distribution Function, though numerical results are also obtained. Conclusion We show that the dye and slide biases were high for human and rice genomic arrays in two gene expression facilities, even after the standard intensity-based normalization, and describe how this diagnostic allowed the problems causing the probe-specific bias to be addressed, and resulted in important improvements in performance. The R package LMGene which contains the method described in this paper has been available to download from Bioconductor.

  1. Printing Proteins as Microarrays for High-Throughput Function Determination

    Science.gov (United States)

    MacBeath, Gavin; Schreiber, Stuart L.

    2000-09-01

    Systematic efforts are currently under way to construct defined sets of cloned genes for high-throughput expression and purification of recombinant proteins. To facilitate subsequent studies of protein function, we have developed miniaturized assays that accommodate extremely low sample volumes and enable the rapid, simultaneous processing of thousands of proteins. A high-precision robot designed to manufacture complementary DNA microarrays was used to spot proteins onto chemically derivatized glass slides at extremely high spatial densities. The proteins attached covalently to the slide surface yet retained their ability to interact specifically with other proteins, or with small molecules, in solution. Three applications for protein microarrays were demonstrated: screening for protein-protein interactions, identifying the substrates of protein kinases, and identifying the protein targets of small molecules.

  2. Cross-platform analysis of cancer microarray data improves gene expression based classification of phenotypes

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    Eils Roland

    2005-11-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background The extensive use of DNA microarray technology in the characterization of the cell transcriptome is leading to an ever increasing amount of microarray data from cancer studies. Although similar questions for the same type of cancer are addressed in these different studies, a comparative analysis of their results is hampered by the use of heterogeneous microarray platforms and analysis methods. Results In contrast to a meta-analysis approach where results of different studies are combined on an interpretative level, we investigate here how to directly integrate raw microarray data from different studies for the purpose of supervised classification analysis. We use median rank scores and quantile discretization to derive numerically comparable measures of gene expression from different platforms. These transformed data are then used for training of classifiers based on support vector machines. We apply this approach to six publicly available cancer microarray gene expression data sets, which consist of three pairs of studies, each examining the same type of cancer, i.e. breast cancer, prostate cancer or acute myeloid leukemia. For each pair, one study was performed by means of cDNA microarrays and the other by means of oligonucleotide microarrays. In each pair, high classification accuracies (> 85% were achieved with training and testing on data instances randomly chosen from both data sets in a cross-validation analysis. To exemplify the potential of this cross-platform classification analysis, we use two leukemia microarray data sets to show that important genes with regard to the biology of leukemia are selected in an integrated analysis, which are missed in either single-set analysis. Conclusion Cross-platform classification of multiple cancer microarray data sets yields discriminative gene expression signatures that are found and validated on a large number of microarray samples, generated by different laboratories and

  3. Adipose tissue transcriptome changes during obesity development in female dogs.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Grant, Ryan W; Vester Boler, Brittany M; Ridge, Tonya K; Graves, Thomas K; Swanson, Kelly S

    2011-03-29

    During the development of obesity, adipose tissue undergoes major expansion and remodeling, but the biological processes involved in this transition are not well understood. The objective of this study was to analyze global gene expression profiles of adipose tissue in dogs, fed a high-fat diet, during the transition from a lean to obese phenotype. Nine female beagles (4.09 ± 0.64 yr; 8.48 ± 0.35 kg) were randomized to ad libitum feeding or body weight maintenance. Subcutaneous adipose tissue biopsy, blood, and dual x-ray absorptiometry measurements were collected at 0, 4, 8, 12, and 24 wk of feeding. Serum was analyzed for glucose, insulin, fructosamine, triglycerides, free fatty acids, adiponectin, and leptin. Formalin-fixed adipose tissue was used for determination of adipocyte size. Adipose RNA samples were hybridized to Affymetrix Canine 2.0 microarrays. Statistical analysis, using repeated-measures ANOVA, showed ad libitum feeding increased (P obesity development.

  4. High quality copy number and genotype data from FFPE samples using Molecular Inversion Probe (MIP) microarrays

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    Wang, Yuker; Carlton, Victoria E.H.; Karlin-Neumann, George; Sapolsky, Ronald; Zhang, Li; Moorhead, Martin; Wang, Zhigang C.; Richardson, Andrea L.; Warren, Robert; Walther, Axel; Bondy, Melissa; Sahin, Aysegul; Krahe, Ralf; Tuna, Musaffe; Thompson, Patricia A.; Spellman, Paul T.; Gray, Joe W.; Mills, Gordon B.; Faham, Malek

    2009-02-24

    A major challenge facing DNA copy number (CN) studies of tumors is that most banked samples with extensive clinical follow-up information are Formalin-Fixed Paraffin Embedded (FFPE). DNA from FFPE samples generally underperforms or suffers high failure rates compared to fresh frozen samples because of DNA degradation and cross-linking during FFPE fixation and processing. As FFPE protocols may vary widely between labs and samples may be stored for decades at room temperature, an ideal FFPE CN technology should work on diverse sample sets. Molecular Inversion Probe (MIP) technology has been applied successfully to obtain high quality CN and genotype data from cell line and frozen tumor DNA. Since the MIP probes require only a small ({approx}40 bp) target binding site, we reasoned they may be well suited to assess degraded FFPE DNA. We assessed CN with a MIP panel of 50,000 markers in 93 FFPE tumor samples from 7 diverse collections. For 38 FFPE samples from three collections we were also able to asses CN in matched fresh frozen tumor tissue. Using an input of 37 ng genomic DNA, we generated high quality CN data with MIP technology in 88% of FFPE samples from seven diverse collections. When matched fresh frozen tissue was available, the performance of FFPE DNA was comparable to that of DNA obtained from matched frozen tumor (genotype concordance averaged 99.9%), with only a modest loss in performance in FFPE. MIP technology can be used to generate high quality CN and genotype data in FFPE as well as fresh frozen samples.

  5. Twist on protein microarrays: layering wax-patterned nitrocellulose to create customizable and separable arrays of multiplexed affinity columns.

    Science.gov (United States)

    de Lange, Victoria; Vörös, János

    2014-05-06

    We developed the simple and inexpensive FoRe microarray to simultaneously test several 1 μL samples for multiple proteins. By combining forward and reverse phase microarrays into an innovative three-dimensional format, the FoRe array exploits the advantages and eliminates several drawbacks of the traditional approaches (i.e., large sample volumes, protein loss, and cross-reactivity between detection antibodies). Samples are pipetted into an array of separable, multiplexed affinity columns. Several nitrocellulose membranes, each functionalized with a different capture antibody, are stacked to create a customizable affinity column. The nitrocellulose is patterned with wax to form 25 isolated microspots on each layer, allowing us to analyze multiple samples in parallel. After running the immunoassay, the stacks are quickly disassembled, revealing 2D microarrays of different fractions from multiple samples. By combining the stack-and-separate technique with wax patterning, we keep the arrays low cost and easily tailored to a variety of applications. We successfully performed 3D multiplexing using a model system with mouse and rabbit IgG. Binding proved to be independent of the position in the stack, and the limit of detection for a mouse IgG sandwich assay was 7.3 pM in BSA and 15 pM in human plasma. The FoRe microarray makes it possible to identify protein expression patterns across several minute volume samples; for example, it could be used to analyze cell lysate in drug response studies or pricks of blood from small animal studies.

  6. In silico design and performance of peptide microarrays for breast cancer tumour-auto-antibody testing

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    Andreas Weinhäusel

    2012-06-01

    Full Text Available The simplicity and potential of minimally invasive testing using sera from patients makes auto-antibody based biomarkers a very promising tool for use in cancer diagnostics. Protein microarrays have been used for the identification of such auto-antibody signatures. Because high throughput protein expression and purification is laborious, synthetic peptides might be a good alternative for microarray generation and multiplexed analyses. In this study, we designed 1185 antigenic peptides, deduced from proteins expressed by 642 cDNA expression clones found to be sero-reactive in both breast tumour patients and controls. The sero-reactive proteins and the corresponding peptides were used for the production of protein and peptide microarrays. Serum samples from females with benign and malignant breast tumours and healthy control sera (n=16 per group were then analysed. Correct classification of the serum samples on peptide microarrays were 78% for discrimination of ‘malignant versus healthy controls’, 72% for ‘benign versus malignant’ and 94% for ‘benign versus controls’. On protein arrays, correct classification for these contrasts was 69%, 59% and 59%, respectively. The over-representation analysis of the classifiers derived from class prediction showed enrichment of genes associated with ribosomes, spliceosomes, endocytosis and the pentose phosphate pathway. Sequence analyses of the peptides with the highest sero-reactivity demonstrated enrichment of the zinc-finger domain. Peptides’ sero-reactivities were found negatively correlated with hydrophobicity and positively correlated with positive charge, high inter-residue protein contact energies and a secondary structure propensity bias. This study hints at the possibility of using in silico designed antigenic peptide microarrays as an alternative to protein microarrays for the improvement of tumour auto-antibody based diagnostics.

  7. Screening for C3 deficiency in newborns using microarrays.

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    Magdalena Janzi

    Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Dried blood spot samples (DBSS from newborns are widely used in neonatal screening for selected metabolic diseases and diagnostic possibilities for additional disorders are continuously being evaluated. Primary immunodeficiency disorders comprise a group of more than one hundred diseases, several of which are fatal early in life. Yet, a majority of the patients are not diagnosed due to lack of high-throughput screening methods. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We have previously developed a system using reverse phase protein microarrays for analysis of IgA levels in serum samples. In this study, we extended the applicability of the method to include determination of complement component C3 levels in eluates from DBSS collected at birth. Normal levels of C3 were readily detected in 269 DBSS from healthy newborns, while no C3 was detected in sera and DBSS from C3 deficient patients. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: The findings suggest that patients with deficiencies of specific serum proteins can be identified by analysis of DBSS using reverse phase protein microarrays.

  8. DNA Microarray Technology; TOPICAL

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    WERNER-WASHBURNE, MARGARET; DAVIDSON, GEORGE S.

    2002-01-01

    Collaboration between Sandia National Laboratories and the University of New Mexico Biology Department resulted in the capability to train students in microarray techniques and the interpretation of data from microarray experiments. These studies provide for a better understanding of the role of stationary phase and the gene regulation involved in exit from stationary phase, which may eventually have important clinical implications. Importantly, this research trained numerous students and is the basis for three new Ph.D. projects

  9. Trace element contamination in feather and tissue samples from Anna’s hummingbirds

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mikoni, Nicole A.; Poppenga, Robert H.; Ackerman, Joshua T.; Foley, Janet E.; Hazlehurst, Jenny; Purdin, Güthrum; Aston, Linda; Hargrave, Sabine; Jelks, Karen; Tell, Lisa A.

    2017-01-01

    Trace element contamination (17 elements; Be, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, As, Se, Mo, Cd, Ba, Hg, Tl, and Pb) of live (feather samples only) and deceased (feather and tissue samples) Anna's hummingbirds (Calypte anna) was evaluated. Samples were analyzed using inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS; 17 elements) and atomic absorption spectrophotometry (Hg only). Mean plus one standard deviation (SD) was considered the benchmark, and concentrations above the mean + 1 SD were considered elevated above normal. Contour feathers were sampled from live birds of varying age, sex, and California locations. In order to reduce thermal impacts, minimal feathers were taken from live birds, therefore a novel method was developed for preparation of low mass feather samples for ICP-MS analysis. The study found that the novel feather preparation method enabled small mass feather samples to be analyzed for trace elements using ICP-MS. For feather samples from live birds, all trace elements, with the exception of beryllium, had concentrations above the mean + 1 SD. Important risk factors for elevated trace element concentrations in feathers of live birds were age for iron, zinc, and arsenic, and location for iron, manganese, zinc, and selenium. For samples from deceased birds, ICP-MS results from body and tail feathers were correlated for Fe, Zn, and Pb, and feather concentrations were correlated with renal (Fe, Zn, Pb) or hepatic (Hg) tissue concentrations. Results for AA spectrophotometry analyzed samples from deceased birds further supported the ICP-MS findings where a strong correlation between mercury concentrations in feather and tissue (pectoral muscle) samples was found. These study results support that sampling feathers from live free-ranging hummingbirds might be a useful, non-lethal sampling method for evaluating trace element exposure and provides a sampling alternative since their small body size limits traditional sampling of blood and tissues. The

  10. Endoglin (CD105) expression on microvessel endothelial cells in juvenile nasopharyngeal angiofibroma: tissue microarray analysis and association with prognostic significance.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Jing-Jing; Sun, Xi-Cai; Hu, Li; Liu, Zhuo-Fu; Yu, Hua-Peng; Li, Han; Wang, Shu-Yi; Wang, De-Hui

    2013-12-01

    The purpose of this study was to examine endoglin (CD105) expression on microvessel endothelial cells (ECs) in juvenile nasopharyngeal angiofibroma (JNA) and its relationship with recurrence. Immunohistochemistry was performed to detect CD105 expression in a tissue microarray from 70 patients with JNA. Correlation between CD105 expression on microvessel ECs and clinicopathological features, as well as tumor recurrence, were analyzed. Immunohistochemistry revealed CD105 expression on ECs but not in stroma of patients with JNA. Chi-square analysis indicated CD105-based microvessel density (MVD) was correlated with JNA recurrence (p = .013). Univariate and multivariate analyses determined that MVD was a significant predictor of time to recurrence (p = .009). The CD105-based MVD was better for predicting disease recurrence (AUROC: 0.673; p = .036) than other clinicopathological features. MVD is a useful predictor for poor prognosis of patients with JNA after curative resection. Angiogenesis, which may play an important role in the occurrence and development of JNA, is therefore a potential therapeutic target for JNA. Copyright © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., A Wiley Company.

  11. Identification and validation of differentially expressed transcripts by RNA-sequencing of formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded (FFPE) lung tissue from patients with Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vukmirovic, Milica; Herazo-Maya, Jose D; Blackmon, John; Skodric-Trifunovic, Vesna; Jovanovic, Dragana; Pavlovic, Sonja; Stojsic, Jelena; Zeljkovic, Vesna; Yan, Xiting; Homer, Robert; Stefanovic, Branko; Kaminski, Naftali

    2017-01-12

    Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF) is a lethal lung disease of unknown etiology. A major limitation in transcriptomic profiling of lung tissue in IPF has been a dependence on snap-frozen fresh tissues (FF). In this project we sought to determine whether genome scale transcript profiling using RNA Sequencing (RNA-Seq) could be applied to archived Formalin-Fixed Paraffin-Embedded (FFPE) IPF tissues. We isolated total RNA from 7 IPF and 5 control FFPE lung tissues and performed 50 base pair paired-end sequencing on Illumina 2000 HiSeq. TopHat2 was used to map sequencing reads to the human genome. On average ~62 million reads (53.4% of ~116 million reads) were mapped per sample. 4,131 genes were differentially expressed between IPF and controls (1,920 increased and 2,211 decreased (FDR < 0.05). We compared our results to differentially expressed genes calculated from a previously published dataset generated from FF tissues analyzed on Agilent microarrays (GSE47460). The overlap of differentially expressed genes was very high (760 increased and 1,413 decreased, FDR < 0.05). Only 92 differentially expressed genes changed in opposite directions. Pathway enrichment analysis performed using MetaCore confirmed numerous IPF relevant genes and pathways including extracellular remodeling, TGF-beta, and WNT. Gene network analysis of MMP7, a highly differentially expressed gene in both datasets, revealed the same canonical pathways and gene network candidates in RNA-Seq and microarray data. For validation by NanoString nCounter® we selected 35 genes that had a fold change of 2 in at least one dataset (10 discordant, 10 significantly differentially expressed in one dataset only and 15 concordant genes). High concordance of fold change and FDR was observed for each type of the samples (FF vs FFPE) with both microarrays (r = 0.92) and RNA-Seq (r = 0.90) and the number of discordant genes was reduced to four. Our results demonstrate that RNA sequencing of RNA

  12. Selective recognition of DNA from olive leaves and olive oil by PNA and modified-PNA microarrays

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rossi, Stefano; Calabretta, Alessandro; Tedeschi, Tullia; Sforza, Stefano; Arcioni, Sergio; Baldoni, Luciana; Corradini, Roberto; Marchelli, Rosangela

    2012-01-01

    PNA probes for the specific detection of DNA from olive oil samples by microarray technology were developed. The presence of as low as 5% refined hazelnut (Corylus avellana) oil in extra-virgin olive oil (Olea europaea L.) could be detected by using a PNA microarray. A set of two single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) from the Actin gene of Olive was chosen as a model for evaluating the ability of PNA probes for discriminating olive cultivars. Both unmodified and C2-modified PNAs bearing an arginine side-chain were used, the latter showing higher sequence specificity. DNA extracted from leaves of three different cultivars (Ogliarola leccese, Canino and Frantoio) could be easily discriminated using a microarray with unmodified PNA probes, whereas discrimination of DNA from oil samples was more challenging, and could be obtained only by using chiral PNA probes. PMID:22772038

  13. Single-Nucleotide Polymorphism-Microarray Ploidy Analysis of Paraffin-Embedded Products of Conception in Recurrent Pregnancy Loss Evaluations.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Maslow, Bat-Sheva L; Budinetz, Tara; Sueldo, Carolina; Anspach, Erica; Engmann, Lawrence; Benadiva, Claudio; Nulsen, John C

    2015-07-01

    To compare the analysis of chromosome number from paraffin-embedded products of conception using single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) microarray with the recommended screening for the evaluation of couples presenting with recurrent pregnancy loss who do not have previous fetal cytogenetic data. We performed a retrospective cohort study including all women who presented for a new evaluation of recurrent pregnancy loss over a 2-year period (January 1, 2012, to December 31, 2013). All participants had at least two documented first-trimester losses and both the recommended screening tests and SNP microarray performed on at least one paraffin-embedded products of conception sample. Single-nucleotide polymorphism microarray identifies all 24 chromosomes (22 autosomes, X, and Y). Forty-two women with a total of 178 losses were included in the study. Paraffin-embedded products of conception from 62 losses were sent for SNP microarray. Single-nucleotide polymorphism microarray successfully diagnosed fetal chromosome number in 71% (44/62) of samples, of which 43% (19/44) were euploid and 57% (25/44) were noneuploid. Seven of 42 (17%) participants had abnormalities on recurrent pregnancy loss screening. The per-person detection rate for a cause of pregnancy loss was significantly higher in the SNP microarray (0.50; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.36-0.64) compared with recurrent pregnancy loss evaluation (0.17; 95% CI 0.08-0.31) (P=.002). Participants with one or more euploid loss identified on paraffin-embedded products of conception were significantly more likely to have an abnormality on recurrent pregnancy loss screening than those with only noneuploid results (P=.028). The significance remained when controlling for age, number of losses, number of samples, and total pregnancies. These results suggest that SNP microarray testing of paraffin-embedded products of conception is a valuable tool for the evaluation of recurrent pregnancy loss in patients without prior fetal

  14. Microarray-based ultra-high resolution discovery of genomic deletion mutations

    Science.gov (United States)

    2014-01-01

    Background Oligonucleotide microarray-based comparative genomic hybridization (CGH) offers an attractive possible route for the rapid and cost-effective genome-wide discovery of deletion mutations. CGH typically involves comparison of the hybridization intensities of genomic DNA samples with microarray chip representations of entire genomes, and has widespread potential application in experimental research and medical diagnostics. However, the power to detect small deletions is low. Results Here we use a graduated series of Arabidopsis thaliana genomic deletion mutations (of sizes ranging from 4 bp to ~5 kb) to optimize CGH-based genomic deletion detection. We show that the power to detect smaller deletions (4, 28 and 104 bp) depends upon oligonucleotide density (essentially the number of genome-representative oligonucleotides on the microarray chip), and determine the oligonucleotide spacings necessary to guarantee detection of deletions of specified size. Conclusions Our findings will enhance a wide range of research and clinical applications, and in particular will aid in the discovery of genomic deletions in the absence of a priori knowledge of their existence. PMID:24655320

  15. Multiplex RT-PCR and Automated Microarray for Detection of Eight Bovine Viruses.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lung, O; Furukawa-Stoffer, T; Burton Hughes, K; Pasick, J; King, D P; Hodko, D

    2017-12-01

    Microarrays can be a useful tool for pathogen detection as it allow for simultaneous interrogation of the presence of a large number of genetic sequences in a sample. However, conventional microarrays require extensive manual handling and multiple pieces of equipment for printing probes, hybridization, washing and signal detection. In this study, a reverse transcription (RT)-PCR with an accompanying novel automated microarray for simultaneous detection of eight viruses that affect cattle [vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV), bovine viral diarrhoea virus type 1 and type 2, bovine herpesvirus 1, bluetongue virus, malignant catarrhal fever virus, rinderpest virus (RPV) and parapox viruses] is described. The assay accurately identified a panel of 37 strains of the target viruses and identified a mixed infection. No non-specific reactions were observed with a panel of 23 non-target viruses associated with livestock. Vesicular stomatitis virus was detected as early as 2 days post-inoculation in oral swabs from experimentally infected animals. The limit of detection of the microarray assay was as low as 1 TCID 50 /ml for RPV. The novel microarray platform automates the entire post-PCR steps of the assay and integrates electrophoretic-driven capture probe printing in a single user-friendly instrument that allows array layout and assay configuration to be user-customized on-site. © 2016 Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada.

  16. Expression Comparison of Oil Biosynthesis Genes in Oil Palm Mesocarp Tissue Using Custom Array

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yick Ching Wong

    2014-11-01

    Full Text Available Gene expression changes that occur during mesocarp development are a major research focus in oil palm research due to the economic importance of this tissue and the relatively rapid increase in lipid content to very high levels at fruit ripeness. Here, we report the development of a transcriptome-based 105,000-probe oil palm mesocarp microarray. The expression of genes involved in fatty acid (FA and triacylglycerol (TAG assembly, along with the tricarboxylic acid cycle (TCA and glycolysis pathway at 16 Weeks After Anthesis (WAA exhibited significantly higher signals compared to those obtained from a cross-species hybridization to the Arabidopsis (p-value < 0.01, and rice (p-value < 0.01 arrays. The oil palm microarray data also showed comparable correlation of expression (r2 = 0.569, p < 0.01 throughout mesocarp development to transcriptome (RNA sequencing data, and improved correlation over quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR (r2 = 0.721, p < 0.01 of the same RNA samples. The results confirm the advantage of the custom microarray over commercially available arrays derived from model species. We demonstrate the utility of this custom microarray to gain a better understanding of gene expression patterns in the oil palm mesocarp that may lead to increasing future oil yield.

  17. Expression Comparison of Oil Biosynthesis Genes in Oil Palm Mesocarp Tissue Using Custom Array

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wong, Yick Ching; Kwong, Qi Bin; Lee, Heng Leng; Ong, Chuang Kee; Mayes, Sean; Chew, Fook Tim; Appleton, David R.; Kulaveerasingam, Harikrishna

    2014-01-01

    Gene expression changes that occur during mesocarp development are a major research focus in oil palm research due to the economic importance of this tissue and the relatively rapid increase in lipid content to very high levels at fruit ripeness. Here, we report the development of a transcriptome-based 105,000-probe oil palm mesocarp microarray. The expression of genes involved in fatty acid (FA) and triacylglycerol (TAG) assembly, along with the tricarboxylic acid cycle (TCA) and glycolysis pathway at 16 Weeks After Anthesis (WAA) exhibited significantly higher signals compared to those obtained from a cross-species hybridization to the Arabidopsis (p-value < 0.01), and rice (p-value < 0.01) arrays. The oil palm microarray data also showed comparable correlation of expression (r2 = 0.569, p < 0.01) throughout mesocarp development to transcriptome (RNA sequencing) data, and improved correlation over quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) (r2 = 0.721, p < 0.01) of the same RNA samples. The results confirm the advantage of the custom microarray over commercially available arrays derived from model species. We demonstrate the utility of this custom microarray to gain a better understanding of gene expression patterns in the oil palm mesocarp that may lead to increasing future oil yield. PMID:27600348

  18. MicroArray Facility: a laboratory information management system with extended support for Nylon based technologies

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Beaudoing Emmanuel

    2006-09-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background High throughput gene expression profiling (GEP is becoming a routine technique in life science laboratories. With experimental designs that repeatedly span thousands of genes and hundreds of samples, relying on a dedicated database infrastructure is no longer an option. GEP technology is a fast moving target, with new approaches constantly broadening the field diversity. This technology heterogeneity, compounded by the informatics complexity of GEP databases, means that software developments have so far focused on mainstream techniques, leaving less typical yet established techniques such as Nylon microarrays at best partially supported. Results MAF (MicroArray Facility is the laboratory database system we have developed for managing the design, production and hybridization of spotted microarrays. Although it can support the widely used glass microarrays and oligo-chips, MAF was designed with the specific idiosyncrasies of Nylon based microarrays in mind. Notably single channel radioactive probes, microarray stripping and reuse, vector control hybridizations and spike-in controls are all natively supported by the software suite. MicroArray Facility is MIAME supportive and dynamically provides feedback on missing annotations to help users estimate effective MIAME compliance. Genomic data such as clone identifiers and gene symbols are also directly annotated by MAF software using standard public resources. The MAGE-ML data format is implemented for full data export. Journalized database operations (audit tracking, data anonymization, material traceability and user/project level confidentiality policies are also managed by MAF. Conclusion MicroArray Facility is a complete data management system for microarray producers and end-users. Particular care has been devoted to adequately model Nylon based microarrays. The MAF system, developed and implemented in both private and academic environments, has proved a robust solution for

  19. Fascin and EMMPRIN expression in primary mucinous tumors of ovary: a tissue microarray study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alici, Omer; Kefeli, Mehmet; Yildiz, Levent; Baris, Sancar; Karagoz, Filiz; Kandemir, Bedri

    2014-12-01

    The aim of this study was to compare the expressions of fascin and EMMPRIN in primary malignant, borderline and benign mucinous ovarian tumors, and to investigate the relationship of these markers with tumor progression and their applicability to differential diagnosis. An immunohistochemical study was performed for fascin and EMMPRIN using the tissue microarray technique. Eighty-one cases were included in the study; there were 37 benign, 25 borderline and 19 malignant primary mucinous ovarian tumors. For each case, a total staining score was determined, consisting of scores for extent of staining and intensity of staining. The cases were allocated to negative, weakly positive and strongly positive staining categories, according to the total staining score. Both of the markers were significantly negative in benign tumors as compared with borderline and malignant tumors. There was no significant difference between borderline and malignant groups for both markers. Sixty-eight percent of malignant tumors were stained positive by fascin, while this rate was 40% for borderline mucinous tumors. All malignant tumors were strongly stained positive for EMMPRIN, while this rate was 92% for borderline mucinous tumors. The rest of the cases stained weakly positive. No significant difference in staining score was found between fascin and EMMPRIN expression. In ovarian primary mucinous tumors, fascin and EMMPRIN may play an important role in tumor progression from benign tumor to carcinoma. In that context, EMMPRIN and fascin expression may have potential application in the differential diagnosis of some diagnostically problematic mucinous ovarian tumors. However, the differential diagnostic applicability of EMMPRIN appears to be more limited than that of fascin due to its wide spectrum of staining in mucinous ovarian tumors. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.

  20. Sample Preparation for Mass Spectrometry Imaging of Plant Tissues: A Review

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dong, Yonghui; Li, Bin; Malitsky, Sergey; Rogachev, Ilana; Aharoni, Asaph; Kaftan, Filip; Svatoš, Aleš; Franceschi, Pietro

    2016-01-01

    Mass spectrometry imaging (MSI) is a mass spectrometry based molecular ion imaging technique. It provides the means for ascertaining the spatial distribution of a large variety of analytes directly on tissue sample surfaces without any labeling or staining agents. These advantages make it an attractive molecular histology tool in medical, pharmaceutical, and biological research. Likewise, MSI has started gaining popularity in plant sciences; yet, information regarding sample preparation methods for plant tissues is still limited. Sample preparation is a crucial step that is directly associated with the quality and authenticity of the imaging results, it therefore demands in-depth studies based on the characteristics of plant samples. In this review, a sample preparation pipeline is discussed in detail and illustrated through selected practical examples. In particular, special concerns regarding sample preparation for plant imaging are critically evaluated. Finally, the applications of MSI techniques in plants are reviewed according to different classes of plant metabolites. PMID:26904042

  1. Sample Preparation for Mass Spectrometry Imaging of Plant Tissues: A Review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dong, Yonghui; Li, Bin; Malitsky, Sergey; Rogachev, Ilana; Aharoni, Asaph; Kaftan, Filip; Svatoš, Aleš; Franceschi, Pietro

    2016-01-01

    Mass spectrometry imaging (MSI) is a mass spectrometry based molecular ion imaging technique. It provides the means for ascertaining the spatial distribution of a large variety of analytes directly on tissue sample surfaces without any labeling or staining agents. These advantages make it an attractive molecular histology tool in medical, pharmaceutical, and biological research. Likewise, MSI has started gaining popularity in plant sciences; yet, information regarding sample preparation methods for plant tissues is still limited. Sample preparation is a crucial step that is directly associated with the quality and authenticity of the imaging results, it therefore demands in-depth studies based on the characteristics of plant samples. In this review, a sample preparation pipeline is discussed in detail and illustrated through selected practical examples. In particular, special concerns regarding sample preparation for plant imaging are critically evaluated. Finally, the applications of MSI techniques in plants are reviewed according to different classes of plant metabolites.

  2. A method for the determination of potassium concentration in organic tissue samples

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Maciel, A.C.A.

    1976-12-01

    An original method has been developed to detect small variations of potassium in several samples of organic tissue. These variations are relative to elements that are biologically representative, such as carbon, oxygen, and nitrogen. The samples are irradiated with a beam of protons from a Van de Graaff accelerator (4MV). Vacancies are created in the K-shell of potassium, and x-rays are emitted when these vacancies are filled with outer electrons. These X-rays and the protons elastically scattered by the nuclei of carbon, nitrogen and oxygen are detected and their energy spectra are analysed by computer programs especially elaborated for this purpose. A technique for routine preparation of samples in the laboratory was developed including the production of aluminum support layers, and the preparation of organic tissue samples with a low temperature microtome. The unique features of this method are that it does not destroy the tissue, permitting further analysis with the microscope, and the normalization of the amount of potassium using other elements (C,O,N) instead of the total mass of the sample. (Author) [pt

  3. Ewing’s Sarcoma: An Analysis of miRNA Expression Profiles and Target Genes in Paraffin-Embedded Primary Tumor Tissue

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Antonina Parafioriti

    2016-04-01

    Full Text Available The molecular mechanism responsible for Ewing’s Sarcoma (ES remains largely unknown. MicroRNAs (miRNAs, a class of small non-coding RNAs able to regulate gene expression, are deregulated in tumors and may serve as a tool for diagnosis and prediction. However, the status of miRNAs in ES has not yet been thoroughly investigated. This study compared global miRNAs expression in paraffin-embedded tumor tissue samples from 20 ES patients, affected by primary untreated tumors, with miRNAs expressed in normal human mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs by microarray analysis. A miRTarBase database was used to identify the predicted target genes for differentially expressed miRNAs. The miRNAs microarray analysis revealed distinct patterns of miRNAs expression between ES samples and normal MSCs. 58 of the 954 analyzed miRNAs were significantly differentially expressed in ES samples compared to MSCs. Moreover, the qRT-PCR analysis carried out on three selected miRNAs showed that miR-181b, miR-1915 and miR-1275 were significantly aberrantly regulated, confirming the microarray results. Bio-database analysis identified BCL-2 as a bona fide target gene of the miR-21, miR-181a, miR-181b, miR-29a, miR-29b, miR-497, miR-195, miR-let-7a, miR-34a and miR-1915. Using paraffin-embedded tissues from ES patients, this study has identified several potential target miRNAs and one gene that might be considered a novel critical biomarker for ES pathogenesis.

  4. A flexible whole-genome microarray for transcriptomics in three-spine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Primmer Craig R

    2009-09-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background The use of microarray technology for describing changes in mRNA expression to address ecological and evolutionary questions is becoming increasingly popular. Since three-spine stickleback are an important ecological and evolutionary model-species as well as an emerging model for eco-toxicology, the ability to have a functional and flexible microarray platform for transcriptome studies will greatly enhance the research potential in these areas. Results We designed 43,392 unique oligonucleotide probes representing 19,274 genes (93% of the estimated total gene number, and tested the hybridization performance of both DNA and RNA from different populations to determine the efficacy of probe design for transcriptome analysis using the Agilent array platform. The majority of probes were functional as evidenced by the DNA hybridization success, and 30,946 probes (14,615 genes had a signal that was significantly above background for RNA isolated from liver tissue. Genes identified as being expressed in liver tissue were grouped into functional categories for each of the three Gene Ontology groups: biological process, molecular function, and cellular component. As expected, the highest proportions of functional categories belonged to those associated with metabolic functions: metabolic process, binding, catabolism, and organelles. Conclusion The probe and microarray design presented here provides an important step facilitating transcriptomics research for this important research organism by providing a set of over 43,000 probes whose hybridization success and specificity to liver expression has been demonstrated. Probes can easily be added or removed from the current design to tailor the array to specific experiments and additional flexibility lies in the ability to perform either one-color or two-color hybridizations.

  5. SiPM as miniaturised optical biosensor for DNA-microarray applications

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M.F. Santangelo

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available A miniaturized optical biosensor for low-level fluorescence emitted by DNA strands labelled with CY5 is showed. Aim of this work is to demonstrate that a Si-based photodetector, having a low noise and a high sensitivity, can replace traditional detection systems in DNA-microarray applications. The photodetector used is a photomultiplier (SiPM, with 25 pixels. It exhibits a higher sensitivity than commercial optical readers and we experimentally found a detection limit for spotted dried samples of ∼1 nM. We measured the fluorescence signal in different operating conditions (angle of analysis, fluorophores concentrations, solution volumes and support. Once fixed the angle of analysis, for samples spotted on Al-TEOS slide dried, the system is proportional to the concentration of the analyte in the sample and is linear in the range 1 nM–1 μM. For solutions, the range of linearity ranges from 100 fM to 10 nM. The system potentialities and the device low costs suggest it as basic component for the design and fabrication of a cheap, easy and portable optical system. Keywords: Optical Biosensor, SiPM, DNA microarray, Fluorophore detection

  6. Recursive SVM feature selection and sample classification for mass-spectrometry and microarray data

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Harris Lyndsay N

    2006-04-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Like microarray-based investigations, high-throughput proteomics techniques require machine learning algorithms to identify biomarkers that are informative for biological classification problems. Feature selection and classification algorithms need to be robust to noise and outliers in the data. Results We developed a recursive support vector machine (R-SVM algorithm to select important genes/biomarkers for the classification of noisy data. We compared its performance to a similar, state-of-the-art method (SVM recursive feature elimination or SVM-RFE, paying special attention to the ability of recovering the true informative genes/biomarkers and the robustness to outliers in the data. Simulation experiments show that a 5 %-~20 % improvement over SVM-RFE can be achieved regard to these properties. The SVM-based methods are also compared with a conventional univariate method and their respective strengths and weaknesses are discussed. R-SVM was applied to two sets of SELDI-TOF-MS proteomics data, one from a human breast cancer study and the other from a study on rat liver cirrhosis. Important biomarkers found by the algorithm were validated by follow-up biological experiments. Conclusion The proposed R-SVM method is suitable for analyzing noisy high-throughput proteomics and microarray data and it outperforms SVM-RFE in the robustness to noise and in the ability to recover informative features. The multivariate SVM-based method outperforms the univariate method in the classification performance, but univariate methods can reveal more of the differentially expressed features especially when there are correlations between the features.

  7. MARS: Microarray analysis, retrieval, and storage system

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Scheideler Marcel

    2005-04-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Microarray analysis has become a widely used technique for the study of gene-expression patterns on a genomic scale. As more and more laboratories are adopting microarray technology, there is a need for powerful and easy to use microarray databases facilitating array fabrication, labeling, hybridization, and data analysis. The wealth of data generated by this high throughput approach renders adequate database and analysis tools crucial for the pursuit of insights into the transcriptomic behavior of cells. Results MARS (Microarray Analysis and Retrieval System provides a comprehensive MIAME supportive suite for storing, retrieving, and analyzing multi color microarray data. The system comprises a laboratory information management system (LIMS, a quality control management, as well as a sophisticated user management system. MARS is fully integrated into an analytical pipeline of microarray image analysis, normalization, gene expression clustering, and mapping of gene expression data onto biological pathways. The incorporation of ontologies and the use of MAGE-ML enables an export of studies stored in MARS to public repositories and other databases accepting these documents. Conclusion We have developed an integrated system tailored to serve the specific needs of microarray based research projects using a unique fusion of Web based and standalone applications connected to the latest J2EE application server technology. The presented system is freely available for academic and non-profit institutions. More information can be found at http://genome.tugraz.at.

  8. Simulation of microarray data with realistic characteristics

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lehmussola Antti

    2006-07-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Microarray technologies have become common tools in biological research. As a result, a need for effective computational methods for data analysis has emerged. Numerous different algorithms have been proposed for analyzing the data. However, an objective evaluation of the proposed algorithms is not possible due to the lack of biological ground truth information. To overcome this fundamental problem, the use of simulated microarray data for algorithm validation has been proposed. Results We present a microarray simulation model which can be used to validate different kinds of data analysis algorithms. The proposed model is unique in the sense that it includes all the steps that affect the quality of real microarray data. These steps include the simulation of biological ground truth data, applying biological and measurement technology specific error models, and finally simulating the microarray slide manufacturing and hybridization. After all these steps are taken into account, the simulated data has realistic biological and statistical characteristics. The applicability of the proposed model is demonstrated by several examples. Conclusion The proposed microarray simulation model is modular and can be used in different kinds of applications. It includes several error models that have been proposed earlier and it can be used with different types of input data. The model can be used to simulate both spotted two-channel and oligonucleotide based single-channel microarrays. All this makes the model a valuable tool for example in validation of data analysis algorithms.

  9. Tissue microarrays and their use for preparation of reference slides ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Use of Tissue array was first applied in 1998, and has received a significant amount of attention from the research community ever since. In this technique, a large number (up to 1000) of cylindrical tissue core extracted from \\"donor\\" paraffin block are deposited into \\"recipient\\" block. The aim was modification of the ...

  10. Importance of the efficiency of double-stranded DNA formation in cDNA synthesis for the imprecision of microarray expression analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thormar, Hans G; Gudmundsson, Bjarki; Eiriksdottir, Freyja; Kil, Siyoen; Gunnarsson, Gudmundur H; Magnusson, Magnus Karl; Hsu, Jason C; Jonsson, Jon J

    2013-04-01

    The causes of imprecision in microarray expression analysis are poorly understood, limiting the use of this technology in molecular diagnostics. Two-dimensional strandness-dependent electrophoresis (2D-SDE) separates nucleic acid molecules on the basis of length and strandness, i.e., double-stranded DNA (dsDNA), single-stranded DNA (ssDNA), and RNA·DNA hybrids. We used 2D-SDE to measure the efficiency of cDNA synthesis and its importance for the imprecision of an in vitro transcription-based microarray expression analysis. The relative amount of double-stranded cDNA formed in replicate experiments that used the same RNA sample template was highly variable, ranging between 0% and 72% of the total DNA. Microarray experiments showed an inverse relationship between the difference between sample pairs in probe variance and the relative amount of dsDNA. Approximately 15% of probes showed between-sample variation (P cDNA synthesized can be an important component of the imprecision in T7 RNA polymerase-based microarray expression analysis. © 2013 American Association for Clinical Chemistry

  11. Establishment and Application of a Visual DNA Microarray for the Detection of Food-borne Pathogens.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Yongjin

    2016-01-01

    The accurate detection and identification of food-borne pathogenic microorganisms is critical for food safety nowadays. In the present work, a visual DNA microarray was established and applied to detect pathogens commonly found in food, including Salmonella enterica, Shigella flexneri, E. coli O157:H7 and Listeria monocytogenes in food samples. Multiplex PCR (mPCR) was employed to simultaneously amplify specific gene fragments, fimY for Salmonella, ipaH for Shigella, iap for L. monocytogenes and ECs2841 for E. coli O157:H7, respectively. Biotinylated PCR amplicons annealed to the microarray probes were then reacted with a streptavidin-alkaline phosphatase conjugate and nitro blue tetrazolium/5-bromo-4-chloro-3'-indolylphosphate, p-toluidine salt (NBT/BCIP); the positive results were easily visualized as blue dots formatted on the microarray surface. The performance of a DNA microarray was tested against 14 representative collection strains and mock-contamination food samples. The combination of mPCR and a visual micro-plate chip specifically and sensitively detected Salmonella enterica, Shigella flexneri, E. coli O157:H7 and Listeria monocytogenes in standard strains and food matrices with a sensitivity of ∼10(2) CFU/mL of bacterial culture. Thus, the developed method is advantageous because of its high throughput, cost-effectiveness and ease of use.

  12. Development and Validation of Protein Microarray Technology for Simultaneous Inflammatory Mediator Detection in Human Sera

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Senthooran Selvarajah

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Biomarkers, including cytokines, can help in the diagnosis, prognosis, and prediction of treatment response across a wide range of disease settings. Consequently, the recent emergence of protein microarray technology, which is able to quantify a range of inflammatory mediators in a large number of samples simultaneously, has become highly desirable. However, the cost of commercial systems remains somewhat prohibitive. Here we show the development, validation, and implementation of an in-house microarray platform which enables the simultaneous quantitative analysis of multiple protein biomarkers. The accuracy and precision of the in-house microarray system were investigated according to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA guidelines for pharmacokinetic assay validation. The assay fell within these limits for all but the very low-abundant cytokines, such as interleukin- (IL- 10. Additionally, there were no significant differences between cytokine detection using our microarray system and the “gold standard” ELISA format. Crucially, future biomarker detection need not be limited to the 16 cytokines shown here but could be expanded as required. In conclusion, we detail a bespoke protein microarray system, utilizing well-validated ELISA reagents, that allows accurate, precise, and reproducible multiplexed biomarker quantification, comparable with commercial ELISA, and allowing customization beyond that of similar commercial microarrays.

  13. cDNA microarray screening in food safety

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Roy, Sashwati; Sen, Chandan K.

    2006-01-01

    The cDNA microarray technology and related bioinformatics tools presents a wide range of novel application opportunities. The technology may be productively applied to address food safety. In this mini-review article, we present an update highlighting the late breaking discoveries that demonstrate the vitality of cDNA microarray technology as a tool to analyze food safety with reference to microbial pathogens and genetically modified foods. In order to bring the microarray technology to mainstream food safety, it is important to develop robust user-friendly tools that may be applied in a field setting. In addition, there needs to be a standardized process for regulatory agencies to interpret and act upon microarray-based data. The cDNA microarray approach is an emergent technology in diagnostics. Its values lie in being able to provide complimentary molecular insight when employed in addition to traditional tests for food safety, as part of a more comprehensive battery of tests

  14. Design of an Enterobacteriaceae Pan-genome Microarray Chip

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Lukjancenko, Oksana; Ussery, David

    2010-01-01

    -density microarray chip has been designed, using 116 Enterobacteriaceae genome sequences, taking into account the enteric pan-genome. Probes for the microarray were checked in silico and performance of the chip, based on experimental strains from four different genera, demonstrate a relatively high ability...... to distinguish those strains on genus, species, and pathotype/serovar levels. Additionally, the microarray performed well when investigating which genes were found in a given strain of interest. The Enterobacteriaceae pan-genome microarray, based on 116 genomes, provides a valuable tool for determination...

  15. Assessing Bacterial Interactions Using Carbohydrate-Based Microarrays

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    Andrea Flannery

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available Carbohydrates play a crucial role in host-microorganism interactions and many host glycoconjugates are receptors or co-receptors for microbial binding. Host glycosylation varies with species and location in the body, and this contributes to species specificity and tropism of commensal and pathogenic bacteria. Additionally, bacterial glycosylation is often the first bacterial molecular species encountered and responded to by the host system. Accordingly, characterising and identifying the exact structures involved in these critical interactions is an important priority in deciphering microbial pathogenesis. Carbohydrate-based microarray platforms have been an underused tool for screening bacterial interactions with specific carbohydrate structures, but they are growing in popularity in recent years. In this review, we discuss carbohydrate-based microarrays that have been profiled with whole bacteria, recombinantly expressed adhesins or serum antibodies. Three main types of carbohydrate-based microarray platform are considered; (i conventional carbohydrate or glycan microarrays; (ii whole mucin microarrays; and (iii microarrays constructed from bacterial polysaccharides or their components. Determining the nature of the interactions between bacteria and host can help clarify the molecular mechanisms of carbohydrate-mediated interactions in microbial pathogenesis, infectious disease and host immune response and may lead to new strategies to boost therapeutic treatments.

  16. ZODET: software for the identification, analysis and visualisation of outlier genes in microarray expression data.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Daniel L Roden

    Full Text Available Complex human diseases can show significant heterogeneity between patients with the same phenotypic disorder. An outlier detection strategy was developed to identify variants at the level of gene transcription that are of potential biological and phenotypic importance. Here we describe a graphical software package (z-score outlier detection (ZODET that enables identification and visualisation of gross abnormalities in gene expression (outliers in individuals, using whole genome microarray data. Mean and standard deviation of expression in a healthy control cohort is used to detect both over and under-expressed probes in individual test subjects. We compared the potential of ZODET to detect outlier genes in gene expression datasets with a previously described statistical method, gene tissue index (GTI, using a simulated expression dataset and a publicly available monocyte-derived macrophage microarray dataset. Taken together, these results support ZODET as a novel approach to identify outlier genes of potential pathogenic relevance in complex human diseases. The algorithm is implemented using R packages and Java.The software is freely available from http://www.ucl.ac.uk/medicine/molecular-medicine/publications/microarray-outlier-analysis.

  17. Single-cell multiple gene expression analysis based on single-molecule-detection microarray assay for multi-DNA determination

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Li, Lu [School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shandong University, Jinan 250100 (China); Wang, Xianwei [School of Life Sciences, Shandong University, Jinan 250100 (China); Zhang, Xiaoli [School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shandong University, Jinan 250100 (China); Wang, Jinxing [School of Life Sciences, Shandong University, Jinan 250100 (China); Jin, Wenrui, E-mail: jwr@sdu.edu.cn [School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shandong University, Jinan 250100 (China)

    2015-01-07

    Highlights: • A single-molecule-detection (SMD) microarray for 10 samples is fabricated. • The based-SMD microarray assay (SMA) can determine 8 DNAs for each sample. • The limit of detection of SMA is as low as 1.3 × 10{sup −16} mol L{sup −1}. • The SMA can be applied in single-cell multiple gene expression analysis. - Abstract: We report a novel ultra-sensitive and high-selective single-molecule-detection microarray assay (SMA) for multiple DNA determination. In the SMA, a capture DNA (DNAc) microarray consisting of 10 subarrays with 9 spots for each subarray is fabricated on a silanized glass coverslip as the substrate. On the subarrays, the spot-to-spot spacing is 500 μm and each spot has a diameter of ∼300 μm. The sequence of the DNAcs on the 9 spots of a subarray is different, to determine 8 types of target DNAs (DNAts). Thus, 8 types of DNAts are captured to their complementary DNAcs at 8 spots of a subarray, respectively, and then labeled with quantum dots (QDs) attached to 8 types of detection DNAs (DNAds) with different sequences. The ninth spot is used to detect the blank value. In order to determine the same 8 types of DNAts in 10 samples, the 10 DNAc-modified subarrays on the microarray are identical. Fluorescence single-molecule images of the QD-labeled DNAts on each spot of the subarray are acquired using a home-made single-molecule microarray reader. The amounts of the DNAts are quantified by counting the bright dots from the QDs. For a microarray, 8 types of DNAts in 10 samples can be quantified in parallel. The limit of detection of the SMA for DNA determination is as low as 1.3 × 10{sup −16} mol L{sup −1}. The SMA for multi-DNA determination can also be applied in single-cell multiple gene expression analysis through quantification of complementary DNAs (cDNAs) corresponding to multiple messenger RNAs (mRNAs) in single cells. To do so, total RNA in single cells is extracted and reversely transcribed into their cDNAs. Three

  18. Utility of the pooling approach as applied to whole genome association scans with high-density Affymetrix microarrays

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gray Joanna

    2010-11-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background We report an attempt to extend the previously successful approach of combining SNP (single nucleotide polymorphism microarrays and DNA pooling (SNP-MaP employing high-density microarrays. Whereas earlier studies employed a range of Affymetrix SNP microarrays comprising from 10 K to 500 K SNPs, this most recent investigation used the 6.0 chip which displays 906,600 SNP probes and 946,000 probes for the interrogation of CNVs (copy number variations. The genotyping assay using the Affymetrix SNP 6.0 array is highly demanding on sample quality due to the small feature size, low redundancy, and lack of mismatch probes. Findings In the first study published so far using this microarray on pooled DNA, we found that pooled cheek swab DNA could not accurately predict real allele frequencies of the samples that comprised the pools. In contrast, the allele frequency estimates using blood DNA pools were reasonable, although inferior compared to those obtained with previously employed Affymetrix microarrays. However, it might be possible to improve performance by developing improved analysis methods. Conclusions Despite the decreasing costs of genome-wide individual genotyping, the pooling approach may have applications in very large-scale case-control association studies. In such cases, our study suggests that high-quality DNA preparations and lower density platforms should be preferred.

  19. Polyadenylation state microarray (PASTA) analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Beilharz, Traude H; Preiss, Thomas

    2011-01-01

    Nearly all eukaryotic mRNAs terminate in a poly(A) tail that serves important roles in mRNA utilization. In the cytoplasm, the poly(A) tail promotes both mRNA stability and translation, and these functions are frequently regulated through changes in tail length. To identify the scope of poly(A) tail length control in a transcriptome, we developed the polyadenylation state microarray (PASTA) method. It involves the purification of mRNA based on poly(A) tail length using thermal elution from poly(U) sepharose, followed by microarray analysis of the resulting fractions. In this chapter we detail our PASTA approach and describe some methods for bulk and mRNA-specific poly(A) tail length measurements of use to monitor the procedure and independently verify the microarray data.

  20. Bacterial identification and subtyping using DNA microarray and DNA sequencing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Al-Khaldi, Sufian F; Mossoba, Magdi M; Allard, Marc M; Lienau, E Kurt; Brown, Eric D

    2012-01-01

    The era of fast and accurate discovery of biological sequence motifs in prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells is here. The co-evolution of direct genome sequencing and DNA microarray strategies not only will identify, isotype, and serotype pathogenic bacteria, but also it will aid in the discovery of new gene functions by detecting gene expressions in different diseases and environmental conditions. Microarray bacterial identification has made great advances in working with pure and mixed bacterial samples. The technological advances have moved beyond bacterial gene expression to include bacterial identification and isotyping. Application of new tools such as mid-infrared chemical imaging improves detection of hybridization in DNA microarrays. The research in this field is promising and future work will reveal the potential of infrared technology in bacterial identification. On the other hand, DNA sequencing by using 454 pyrosequencing is so cost effective that the promise of $1,000 per bacterial genome sequence is becoming a reality. Pyrosequencing technology is a simple to use technique that can produce accurate and quantitative analysis of DNA sequences with a great speed. The deposition of massive amounts of bacterial genomic information in databanks is creating fingerprint phylogenetic analysis that will ultimately replace several technologies such as Pulsed Field Gel Electrophoresis. In this chapter, we will review (1) the use of DNA microarray using fluorescence and infrared imaging detection for identification of pathogenic bacteria, and (2) use of pyrosequencing in DNA cluster analysis to fingerprint bacterial phylogenetic trees.

  1. A comprehensive sensitivity analysis of microarray breast cancer classification under feature variability

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Reinders Marcel JT

    2009-11-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Large discrepancies in signature composition and outcome concordance have been observed between different microarray breast cancer expression profiling studies. This is often ascribed to differences in array platform as well as biological variability. We conjecture that other reasons for the observed discrepancies are the measurement error associated with each feature and the choice of preprocessing method. Microarray data are known to be subject to technical variation and the confidence intervals around individual point estimates of expression levels can be wide. Furthermore, the estimated expression values also vary depending on the selected preprocessing scheme. In microarray breast cancer classification studies, however, these two forms of feature variability are almost always ignored and hence their exact role is unclear. Results We have performed a comprehensive sensitivity analysis of microarray breast cancer classification under the two types of feature variability mentioned above. We used data from six state of the art preprocessing methods, using a compendium consisting of eight diferent datasets, involving 1131 hybridizations, containing data from both one and two-color array technology. For a wide range of classifiers, we performed a joint study on performance, concordance and stability. In the stability analysis we explicitly tested classifiers for their noise tolerance by using perturbed expression profiles that are based on uncertainty information directly related to the preprocessing methods. Our results indicate that signature composition is strongly influenced by feature variability, even if the array platform and the stratification of patient samples are identical. In addition, we show that there is often a high level of discordance between individual class assignments for signatures constructed on data coming from different preprocessing schemes, even if the actual signature composition is identical

  2. Evaluation of toxicity of the mycotoxin citrinin using yeast ORF DNA microarray and Oligo DNA microarray

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nobumasa Hitoshi

    2007-04-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Mycotoxins are fungal secondary metabolites commonly present in feed and food, and are widely regarded as hazardous contaminants. Citrinin, one of the very well known mycotoxins that was first isolated from Penicillium citrinum, is produced by more than 10 kinds of fungi, and is possibly spread all over the world. However, the information on the action mechanism of the toxin is limited. Thus, we investigated the citrinin-induced genomic response for evaluating its toxicity. Results Citrinin inhibited growth of yeast cells at a concentration higher than 100 ppm. We monitored the citrinin-induced mRNA expression profiles in yeast using the ORF DNA microarray and Oligo DNA microarray, and the expression profiles were compared with those of the other stress-inducing agents. Results obtained from both microarray experiments clustered together, but were different from those of the mycotoxin patulin. The oxidative stress response genes – AADs, FLR1, OYE3, GRE2, and MET17 – were significantly induced. In the functional category, expression of genes involved in "metabolism", "cell rescue, defense and virulence", and "energy" were significantly activated. In the category of "metabolism", genes involved in the glutathione synthesis pathway were activated, and in the category of "cell rescue, defense and virulence", the ABC transporter genes were induced. To alleviate the induced stress, these cells might pump out the citrinin after modification with glutathione. While, the citrinin treatment did not induce the genes involved in the DNA repair. Conclusion Results from both microarray studies suggest that citrinin treatment induced oxidative stress in yeast cells. The genotoxicity was less severe than the patulin, suggesting that citrinin is less toxic than patulin. The reproducibility of the expression profiles was much better with the Oligo DNA microarray. However, the Oligo DNA microarray did not completely overcome cross

  3. Advanced microarray technologies for clinical diagnostics

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Pierik, Anke

    2011-01-01

    DNA microarrays become increasingly important in the field of clinical diagnostics. These microarrays, also called DNA chips, are small solid substrates, typically having a maximum surface area of a few cm2, onto which many spots are arrayed in a pre-determined pattern. Each of these spots contains

  4. Pattern of somatostatin receptors expression in normal and bladder cancer tissue samples.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Karavitakis, Markos; Msaouel, Pavlos; Michalopoulos, Vassilis; Koutsilieris, Michael

    2014-06-01

    Known risks factors for bladder cancer progression and recurrence are limited regarding their prognostic ability. Therefore identification of molecular determinants of disease progression could provide with more specific prognostic information and could be translated into new approaches for biomarker development. In the present study we evaluated, the expression patterns of somatostatin receptors 1-5 (SSTRs) in normal and tumor bladder tissues. The expression of SSTR1-5 was characterized in 45 normal and bladder cancer tissue samples using reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). SSTR1 was expressed in 24 samples, SSTR2 in 15, SSTR3 in 23, SSTR4 in 16 and SSTR5 in all but one sample. Bladder cancer tissue samples expressed lower levels of SSTR3. Co-expression of SSTRs was associated with superficial disease. Our results demonstrate, for the first time, that there is expression of SSTR in normal and bladder cancer urothelium. Further studies are required to evaluate the prognostic and therapeutic significance of these findings. Copyright© 2014 International Institute of Anticancer Research (Dr. John G. Delinassios), All rights reserved.

  5. Microarrays for the evaluation of cell-biomaterial surface interactions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thissen, H.; Johnson, G.; McFarland, G.; Verbiest, B. C. H.; Gengenbach, T.; Voelcker, N. H.

    2007-01-01

    The evaluation of cell-material surface interactions is important for the design of novel biomaterials which are used in a variety of biomedical applications. While traditional in vitro test methods have routinely used samples of relatively large size, microarrays representing different biomaterials offer many advantages, including high throughput and reduced sample handling. Here, we describe the simultaneous cell-based testing of matrices of polymeric biomaterials, arrayed on glass slides with a low cell-attachment background coating. Arrays were constructed using a microarray robot at 6 fold redundancy with solid pins having a diameter of 375 μm. Printed solutions contained at least one monomer, an initiator and a bifunctional crosslinker. After subsequent UV polymerisation, the arrays were washed and characterised by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Cell culture experiments were carried out over 24 hours using HeLa cells. After labelling with CellTracker ® Green for the final hour of incubation and subsequent fixation, the arrays were scanned. In addition, individual spots were also viewed by fluorescence microscopy. The evaluation of cell-surface interactions in high-throughput assays as demonstrated here is a key enabling technology for the effective development of future biomaterials.

  6. Creation of antifouling microarrays by photopolymerization of zwitterionic compounds for protein assay and cell patterning.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sun, Xiuhua; Wang, Huaixin; Wang, Yuanyuan; Gui, Taijiang; Wang, Ke; Gao, Changlu

    2018-04-15

    Nonspecific binding or adsorption of biomolecules presents as a major obstacle to higher sensitivity, specificity and reproducibility in microarray technology. We report herein a method to fabricate antifouling microarray via photopolymerization of biomimetic betaine compounds. In brief, carboxybetaine methacrylate was polymerized as arrays for protein sensing, while sulfobetaine methacrylate was polymerized as background. With the abundant carboxyl groups on array surfaces and zwitterionic polymers on the entire surfaces, this microarray allows biomolecular immobilization and recognition with low nonspecific interactions due to its antifouling property. Therefore, low concentration of target molecules can be captured and detected by this microarray. It was proved that a concentration of 10ngmL -1 bovine serum albumin in the sample matrix of bovine serum can be detected by the microarray derivatized with anti-bovine serum albumin. Moreover, with proper hydrophilic-hydrophobic designs, this approach can be applied to fabricate surface-tension droplet arrays, which allows surface-directed cell adhesion and growth. These light controllable approaches constitute a clear improvement in the design of antifouling interfaces, which may lead to greater flexibility in the development of interfacial architectures and wider application in blood contact microdevices. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  7. Fabrication of protein microarrays for alpha fetoprotein detection by using a rapid photo-immobilization process

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sirasa Yodmongkol

    2016-03-01

    Full Text Available In this study, protein microarrays based on sandwich immunoassays are generated to quantify the amount of alpha fetoprotein (AFP in blood serum. For chip generation a mixture of capture antibody and a photoactive copolymer consisting of N,N-dimethylacrylamide (DMAA, methacryloyloxy benzophenone (MaBP, and Na-4-styrenesulfonate (SSNa was spotted onto unmodified polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA substrates. Subsequently to printing of the microarray, the polymer and protein were photochemically cross-linked and the forming, biofunctionalized hydrogels simultaneously bound to the chip surface by short UV- irradiation. The obtained biochip was incubated with AFP antigen, followed by biotinylated AFP antibody and streptavidin-Cy5 and the fluorescence signal read-out. The developed microarray biochip covers the range of AFP in serum samples such as maternal serum in the range of 5 and 100 ng/ml. The chip production process is based on a fast and simple immobilization process, which can be applied to conventional plastic surfaces. Therefore, this protein microarray production process is a promising method to fabricate biochips for AFP screening processes. Keywords: Photo-immobilization, Protein microarray, Alpha fetoprotein, Hydrogel, 3D surface, Down syndrome

  8. An evaluation of two-channel ChIP-on-chip and DNA methylation microarray normalization strategies

    Science.gov (United States)

    2012-01-01

    Background The combination of chromatin immunoprecipitation with two-channel microarray technology enables genome-wide mapping of binding sites of DNA-interacting proteins (ChIP-on-chip) or sites with methylated CpG di-nucleotides (DNA methylation microarray). These powerful tools are the gateway to understanding gene transcription regulation. Since the goals of such studies, the sample preparation procedures, the microarray content and study design are all different from transcriptomics microarrays, the data pre-processing strategies traditionally applied to transcriptomics microarrays may not be appropriate. Particularly, the main challenge of the normalization of "regulation microarrays" is (i) to make the data of individual microarrays quantitatively comparable and (ii) to keep the signals of the enriched probes, representing DNA sequences from the precipitate, as distinguishable as possible from the signals of the un-enriched probes, representing DNA sequences largely absent from the precipitate. Results We compare several widely used normalization approaches (VSN, LOWESS, quantile, T-quantile, Tukey's biweight scaling, Peng's method) applied to a selection of regulation microarray datasets, ranging from DNA methylation to transcription factor binding and histone modification studies. Through comparison of the data distributions of control probes and gene promoter probes before and after normalization, and assessment of the power to identify known enriched genomic regions after normalization, we demonstrate that there are clear differences in performance between normalization procedures. Conclusion T-quantile normalization applied separately on the channels and Tukey's biweight scaling outperform other methods in terms of the conservation of enriched and un-enriched signal separation, as well as in identification of genomic regions known to be enriched. T-quantile normalization is preferable as it additionally improves comparability between microarrays. In

  9. High-throughput DNA microarray detection of pathogenic bacteria in shallow well groundwater in the Kathmandu Valley, Nepal.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Inoue, Daisuke; Hinoura, Takuji; Suzuki, Noriko; Pang, Junqin; Malla, Rabin; Shrestha, Sadhana; Chapagain, Saroj Kumar; Matsuzawa, Hiroaki; Nakamura, Takashi; Tanaka, Yasuhiro; Ike, Michihiko; Nishida, Kei; Sei, Kazunari

    2015-01-01

    Because of heavy dependence on groundwater for drinking water and other domestic use, microbial contamination of groundwater is a serious problem in the Kathmandu Valley, Nepal. This study investigated comprehensively the occurrence of pathogenic bacteria in shallow well groundwater in the Kathmandu Valley by applying DNA microarray analysis targeting 941 pathogenic bacterial species/groups. Water quality measurements found significant coliform (fecal) contamination in 10 of the 11 investigated groundwater samples and significant nitrogen contamination in some samples. The results of DNA microarray analysis revealed the presence of 1-37 pathogen species/groups, including 1-27 biosafety level 2 ones, in 9 of the 11 groundwater samples. While the detected pathogens included several feces- and animal-related ones, those belonging to Legionella and Arthrobacter, which were considered not to be directly associated with feces, were detected prevalently. This study could provide a rough picture of overall pathogenic bacterial contamination in the Kathmandu Valley, and demonstrated the usefulness of DNA microarray analysis as a comprehensive screening tool of a wide variety of pathogenic bacteria.

  10. Plant-pathogen interactions: what microarray tells about it?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lodha, T D; Basak, J

    2012-01-01

    Plant defense responses are mediated by elementary regulatory proteins that affect expression of thousands of genes. Over the last decade, microarray technology has played a key role in deciphering the underlying networks of gene regulation in plants that lead to a wide variety of defence responses. Microarray is an important tool to quantify and profile the expression of thousands of genes simultaneously, with two main aims: (1) gene discovery and (2) global expression profiling. Several microarray technologies are currently in use; most include a glass slide platform with spotted cDNA or oligonucleotides. Till date, microarray technology has been used in the identification of regulatory genes, end-point defence genes, to understand the signal transduction processes underlying disease resistance and its intimate links to other physiological pathways. Microarray technology can be used for in-depth, simultaneous profiling of host/pathogen genes as the disease progresses from infection to resistance/susceptibility at different developmental stages of the host, which can be done in different environments, for clearer understanding of the processes involved. A thorough knowledge of plant disease resistance using successful combination of microarray and other high throughput techniques, as well as biochemical, genetic, and cell biological experiments is needed for practical application to secure and stabilize yield of many crop plants. This review starts with a brief introduction to microarray technology, followed by the basics of plant-pathogen interaction, the use of DNA microarrays over the last decade to unravel the mysteries of plant-pathogen interaction, and ends with the future prospects of this technology.

  11. Gaucher disease: transcriptome analyses using microarray or mRNA sequencing in a Gba1 mutant mouse model treated with velaglucerase alfa or imiglucerase.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nupur Dasgupta

    Full Text Available Gaucher disease type 1, an inherited lysosomal storage disorder, is caused by mutations in GBA1 leading to defective glucocerebrosidase (GCase function and consequent excess accumulation of glucosylceramide/glucosylsphingosine in visceral organs. Enzyme replacement therapy (ERT with the biosimilars, imiglucerase (imig or velaglucerase alfa (vela improves/reverses the visceral disease. Comparative transcriptomic effects (microarray and mRNA-Seq of no ERT and ERT (imig or vela were done with liver, lung, and spleen from mice having Gba1 mutant alleles, termed D409V/null. Disease-related molecular effects, dynamic ranges, and sensitivities were compared between mRNA-Seq and microarrays and their respective analytic tools, i.e. Mixed Model ANOVA (microarray, and DESeq and edgeR (mRNA-Seq. While similar gene expression patterns were observed with both platforms, mRNA-Seq identified more differentially expressed genes (DEGs (∼3-fold than the microarrays. Among the three analytic tools, DESeq identified the maximum number of DEGs for all tissues and treatments. DESeq and edgeR comparisons revealed differences in DEGs identified. In 9V/null liver, spleen and lung, post-therapy transcriptomes approximated WT, were partially reverted, and had little change, respectively, and were concordant with the corresponding histological and biochemical findings. DEG overlaps were only 8-20% between mRNA-Seq and microarray, but the biological pathways were similar. Cell growth and proliferation, cell cycle, heme metabolism, and mitochondrial dysfunction were most altered with the Gaucher disease process. Imig and vela differentially affected specific disease pathways. Differential molecular responses were observed in direct transcriptome comparisons from imig- and vela-treated tissues. These results provide cross-validation for the mRNA-Seq and microarray platforms, and show differences between the molecular effects of two highly structurally similar ERT

  12. DNA damage in preserved specimens and tissue samples: a molecular assessment

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Cantin Elizabeth

    2008-10-01

    Full Text Available Abstract The extraction of genetic information from preserved tissue samples or museum specimens is a fundamental component of many fields of research, including the Barcode of Life initiative, forensic investigations, biological studies using scat sample analysis, and cancer research utilizing formaldehyde-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissue. Efforts to obtain genetic information from these sources are often hampered by an inability to amplify the desired DNA as a consequence of DNA damage. Previous studies have described techniques for improved DNA extraction from such samples or focused on the effect of damaging agents – such as light, oxygen or formaldehyde – on free nucleotides. We present ongoing work to characterize lesions in DNA samples extracted from preserved specimens. The extracted DNA is digested to single nucleosides with a combination of DNase I, Snake Venom Phosphodiesterase, and Antarctic Phosphatase and then analyzed by HPLC-ESI-TOF-MS. We present data for moth specimens that were preserved dried and pinned with no additional preservative and for frog tissue samples that were preserved in either ethanol, or formaldehyde, or fixed in formaldehyde and then preserved in ethanol. These preservation methods represent the most common methods of preserving animal specimens in museum collections. We observe changes in the nucleoside content of these samples over time, especially a loss of deoxyguanosine. We characterize the fragmentation state of the DNA and aim to identify abundant nucleoside lesions. Finally, simple models are introduced to describe the DNA fragmentation based on nicks and double-strand breaks.

  13. DNA Microarray Technology

    Science.gov (United States)

    Skip to main content DNA Microarray Technology Enter Search Term(s): Español Research Funding An Overview Bioinformatics Current Grants Education and Training Funding Extramural Research News Features Funding Divisions Funding ...

  14. HER2 evaluation using the novel rabbit monoclonal antibody SP3 and CISH in tissue microarrays of invasive breast carcinomas.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ricardo, Sara Alexandra Vinhas; Milanezi, Fernanda; Carvalho, Sílvia Teresa; Leitão, Dina Raquel Aguilera; Schmitt, Fernando Carlos Lander

    2007-09-01

    Laboratory methods for HER2 assessment currently include immunohistochemical (IHC) methods (measuring protein overexpression) and fluorescence in situ hybridisation (FISH) (measuring gene amplification). The measure of HER2 protein by IHC is usually assessed by the mouse monoclonal antibody CB11, and polyclonal antibodies (Herceptest) directed against the internal portion of the receptor. Recently, chromogenic in situ hybridisation (CISH), in which HER2 is detected by a peroxidase reaction and the gene amplification can be determined by regular bright-field microscopy, has emerged as an alternative to FISH. To evaluate the status of HER2 in tissue microarrays (TMAs) of invasive breast cancer using the novel rabbit monoclonal antibody SP3 directed against the external portion of HER2, and correlate the results with CB11 and CISH. IHC was performed with two antibodies (CB11 and SP3) and CISH for HER2 in 10 TMA blocks with 190 formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded cases of invasive breast carcinomas. The correlation between SP3 and CB11 was significant (pCISH (pCISH, shows that this novel antibody is a reliable candidate to evaluate the expression of HER2 in breast cancer.

  15. Microarray analysis in the zebrafish (Danio rerio) liver and telencephalon after exposure to low concentration of 17alpha-ethinylestradiol

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Martyniuk, Christopher J. [Centre for Advanced Research in Environmental Genomics, 30 Marie Curie, Department of Biology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, K1N 6N5 (Canada); Gerrie, Emily R. [Centre for Advanced Research in Environmental Genomics, 30 Marie Curie, Department of Biology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, K1N 6N5 (Canada); Popesku, Jason T. [Centre for Advanced Research in Environmental Genomics, 30 Marie Curie, Department of Biology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, K1N 6N5 (Canada); Ekker, Marc [Centre for Advanced Research in Environmental Genomics, 30 Marie Curie, Department of Biology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, K1N 6N5 (Canada); Trudeau, Vance L. [Centre for Advanced Research in Environmental Genomics, 30 Marie Curie, Department of Biology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, K1N 6N5 (Canada)]. E-mail: trudeauv@uottawa.ca

    2007-08-15

    17alpha-ethinylestradiol (EE2) is detected in sewage effluent at concentrations that can disrupt normal reproductive function in fish. The objectives of this study were to identify novel genomic responses to EE2 exposure using microarray and real-time RT-PCR analysis in the liver and telencephalon of male zebrafish. Zebrafish were exposed to an environmentally relevant nominal concentration of 10 ng/L EE2 for a 21-day period. In the liver, common biomarkers for estrogenic exposure such as vitellogenin 1 and 3 (vtg1; vtg3), estrogen receptor alpha (esr1), and apolipoprotein A1 (apoA1) mRNA were identified by microarray analysis as being differentially regulated. Real-time RT-PCR confirmed that vtg1 was induced {approx}700-fold, vtg3 was induced {approx}100-fold and esr1 was induced {approx}20-fold. As determined by microarray analysis, ATPase Na+/K+ alpha 1a.4 (atp1a1a.4) and ATPase Na+/K+ beta 1a (atp1b1a) mRNA were down-regulated in the liver. Gene ontology (GO) analysis revealed that there were common biological processes and molecular functions regulated by EE2 in both tissues (e.g. electron transport and cell communication) but there were tissue specific changes in gene categories. For example, genes involved in protein metabolism, carbohydrate metabolism were down-regulated in the liver but were induced in the telencephalon. This study demonstrates that (1) tissues exhibit different gene responses to low EE2 exposure; (2) there are pronounced genomic effects in the liver and (3) multi-tissue gene profiling is needed to improve understanding of the effects of human pharmaceuticals on aquatic organisms.

  16. Measurement of the hyperelastic properties of 44 pathological ex vivo breast tissue samples

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    O'Hagan, Joseph J; Samani, Abbas

    2009-01-01

    The elastic and hyperelastic properties of biological soft tissues have been of interest to the medical community. There are several biomedical applications where parameters characterizing such properties are critical for a reliable clinical outcome. These applications include surgery planning, needle biopsy and brachtherapy where tissue biomechanical modeling is involved. Another important application is interpreting nonlinear elastography images. While there has been considerable research on the measurement of the linear elastic modulus of small tissue samples, little research has been conducted for measuring parameters that characterize the nonlinear elasticity of tissues included in tissue slice specimens. This work presents hyperelastic measurement results of 44 pathological ex vivo breast tissue samples. For each sample, five hyperelastic models have been used, including the Yeoh, N = 2 polynomial, N = 1 Ogden, Arruda-Boyce, and Veronda-Westmann models. Results show that the Yeoh, polynomial and Ogden models are the most accurate in terms of fitting experimental data. The results indicate that almost all of the parameters corresponding to the pathological tissues are between two times to over two orders of magnitude larger than those of normal tissues, with C 11 showing the most significant difference. Furthermore, statistical analysis indicates that C 02 of the Yeoh model, and C 11 and C 20 of the polynomial model have very good potential for cancer classification as they show statistically significant differences for various cancer types, especially for invasive lobular carcinoma. In addition to the potential for use in cancer classification, the presented data are very important for applications such as surgery planning and virtual reality based clinician training systems where accurate nonlinear tissue response modeling is required.

  17. Measurement of the hyperelastic properties of 44 pathological ex vivo breast tissue samples

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    O' Hagan, Joseph J; Samani, Abbas [Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Western Ontario, London, ON (Canada)], E-mail: asamani@uwo.ca

    2009-04-21

    The elastic and hyperelastic properties of biological soft tissues have been of interest to the medical community. There are several biomedical applications where parameters characterizing such properties are critical for a reliable clinical outcome. These applications include surgery planning, needle biopsy and brachtherapy where tissue biomechanical modeling is involved. Another important application is interpreting nonlinear elastography images. While there has been considerable research on the measurement of the linear elastic modulus of small tissue samples, little research has been conducted for measuring parameters that characterize the nonlinear elasticity of tissues included in tissue slice specimens. This work presents hyperelastic measurement results of 44 pathological ex vivo breast tissue samples. For each sample, five hyperelastic models have been used, including the Yeoh, N = 2 polynomial, N = 1 Ogden, Arruda-Boyce, and Veronda-Westmann models. Results show that the Yeoh, polynomial and Ogden models are the most accurate in terms of fitting experimental data. The results indicate that almost all of the parameters corresponding to the pathological tissues are between two times to over two orders of magnitude larger than those of normal tissues, with C{sub 11} showing the most significant difference. Furthermore, statistical analysis indicates that C{sub 02} of the Yeoh model, and C{sub 11} and C{sub 20} of the polynomial model have very good potential for cancer classification as they show statistically significant differences for various cancer types, especially for invasive lobular carcinoma. In addition to the potential for use in cancer classification, the presented data are very important for applications such as surgery planning and virtual reality based clinician training systems where accurate nonlinear tissue response modeling is required.

  18. Measurement of the hyperelastic properties of 44 pathological ex vivo breast tissue samples

    Science.gov (United States)

    O'Hagan, Joseph J.; Samani, Abbas

    2009-04-01

    The elastic and hyperelastic properties of biological soft tissues have been of interest to the medical community. There are several biomedical applications where parameters characterizing such properties are critical for a reliable clinical outcome. These applications include surgery planning, needle biopsy and brachtherapy where tissue biomechanical modeling is involved. Another important application is interpreting nonlinear elastography images. While there has been considerable research on the measurement of the linear elastic modulus of small tissue samples, little research has been conducted for measuring parameters that characterize the nonlinear elasticity of tissues included in tissue slice specimens. This work presents hyperelastic measurement results of 44 pathological ex vivo breast tissue samples. For each sample, five hyperelastic models have been used, including the Yeoh, N = 2 polynomial, N = 1 Ogden, Arruda-Boyce, and Veronda-Westmann models. Results show that the Yeoh, polynomial and Ogden models are the most accurate in terms of fitting experimental data. The results indicate that almost all of the parameters corresponding to the pathological tissues are between two times to over two orders of magnitude larger than those of normal tissues, with C11 showing the most significant difference. Furthermore, statistical analysis indicates that C02 of the Yeoh model, and C11 and C20 of the polynomial model have very good potential for cancer classification as they show statistically significant differences for various cancer types, especially for invasive lobular carcinoma. In addition to the potential for use in cancer classification, the presented data are very important for applications such as surgery planning and virtual reality based clinician training systems where accurate nonlinear tissue response modeling is required.

  19. A cell spot microarray method for production of high density siRNA transfection microarrays

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mpindi John-Patrick

    2011-03-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background High-throughput RNAi screening is widely applied in biological research, but remains expensive, infrastructure-intensive and conversion of many assays to HTS applications in microplate format is not feasible. Results Here, we describe the optimization of a miniaturized cell spot microarray (CSMA method, which facilitates utilization of the transfection microarray technique for disparate RNAi analyses. To promote rapid adaptation of the method, the concept has been tested with a panel of 92 adherent cell types, including primary human cells. We demonstrate the method in the systematic screening of 492 GPCR coding genes for impact on growth and survival of cultured human prostate cancer cells. Conclusions The CSMA method facilitates reproducible preparation of highly parallel cell microarrays for large-scale gene knockdown analyses. This will be critical towards expanding the cell based functional genetic screens to include more RNAi constructs, allow combinatorial RNAi analyses, multi-parametric phenotypic readouts or comparative analysis of many different cell types.

  20. Application of the AMLprofiler Diagnostic Microarray in the South African Setting

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    S. S. Kappala

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Acute myeloid leukemia (AML is characterized by proliferation of the myeloid lineage and accumulation of immature hematopoietic cells in the bone marrow and is typified by marked heterogeneity both in response to treatment and survival. AMLprofiler is a qualitative in vitro diagnostic microarray incorporating seven molecular biomarkers used to diagnose and predict posttherapy survival rates. In this study, we compared AMLprofiler to routine AML diagnostic methodologies employed in South Africa, focusing on consistency of the results, cost, and time to result. RNA was isolated from bone marrow and peripheral blood samples from patients with de novo AML and was processed using Affymetrix Gene Profiling Reagent kits. The results from AMLprofiler and standard methodologies were highly comparable. In addition, many samples were determined to be positive for biomarkers not routinely investigated in South Africa, namely, CEBPA double mutants, NPM1 variants, and altered expression levels of BAALC and EVI1. 38% of samples presented with no positive biomarker; AMLprofiler nonetheless enabled 26% of AML patients to be classified into either favorable or poor prognostic categories. This study highlights the comprehensive nature of the microarray. Decreased time to result and refinement of risk stratification are notable benefits.

  1. Carbohydrate Microarrays in Plant Science

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Fangel, Jonatan Ulrik; Pedersen, H.L.; Vidal-Melgosa, S.

    2012-01-01

    Almost all plant cells are surrounded by glycan-rich cell walls, which form much of the plant body and collectively are the largest source of biomass on earth. Plants use polysaccharides for support, defense, signaling, cell adhesion, and as energy storage, and many plant glycans are also important...... industrially and nutritionally. Understanding the biological roles of plant glycans and the effective exploitation of their useful properties requires a detailed understanding of their structures, occurrence, and molecular interactions. Microarray technology has revolutionized the massively high...... for plant research and can be used to map glycan populations across large numbers of samples to screen antibodies, carbohydrate binding proteins, and carbohydrate binding modules and to investigate enzyme activities....

  2. Implementation of plaid model biclustering method on microarray of carcinoma and adenoma tumor gene expression data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ardaneswari, Gianinna; Bustamam, Alhadi; Sarwinda, Devvi

    2017-10-01

    A Tumor is an abnormal growth of cells that serves no purpose. Carcinoma is a tumor that grows from the top of the cell membrane and the organ adenoma is a benign tumor of the gland-like cells or epithelial tissue. In the field of molecular biology, the development of microarray technology is used in the data store of disease genetic expression. For each of microarray gene, an amount of information is stored for each trait or condition. In gene expression data clustering can be done with a bicluster algorithm, thats clustering method which not only the objects to be clustered, but also the properties or condition of the object. This research proposed Plaid Model Biclustering as one of biclustering method. In this study, we discuss the implementation of Plaid Model Biclustering Method on microarray of Carcinoma and Adenoma tumor gene expression data. From the experimental results, we found three biclusters are formed by Carcinoma gene expression data and four biclusters are formed by Adenoma gene expression data.

  3. Screening of Viral Pathogens from Pediatric Ileal Tissue Samples after Vaccination

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Laura Hewitson

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available In 2010, researchers reported that the two US-licensed rotavirus vaccines contained DNA or DNA fragments from porcine circovirus (PCV. Although PCV, a common virus among pigs, is not thought to cause illness in humans, these findings raised several safety concerns. In this study, we sought to determine whether viruses, including PCV, could be detected in ileal tissue samples of children vaccinated with one of the two rotavirus vaccines. A broad spectrum, novel DNA detection technology, the Lawrence Livermore Microbial Detection Array (LLMDA, was utilized, and confirmation of viral pathogens using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR was conducted. The LLMDA technology was recently used to identify PCV from one rotavirus vaccine. Ileal tissue samples were analyzed from 21 subjects, aged 15–62 months. PCV was not detected in any ileal tissue samples by the LLMDA or PCR. LLMDA identified a human rotavirus A from one of the vaccinated subjects, which is likely due to a recent infection from a wild type rotavirus. LLMDA also identified human parechovirus, a common gastroenteritis viral infection, from two subjects. Additionally, LLMDA detected common gastrointestinal bacterial organisms from the Enterobacteriaceae, Bacteroidaceae, and Streptococcaceae families from several subjects. This study provides a survey of viral and bacterial pathogens from pediatric ileal samples, and may shed light on future studies to identify pathogen associations with pediatric vaccinations.

  4. Extended -Regular Sequence for Automated Analysis of Microarray Images

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jin Hee-Jeong

    2006-01-01

    Full Text Available Microarray study enables us to obtain hundreds of thousands of expressions of genes or genotypes at once, and it is an indispensable technology for genome research. The first step is the analysis of scanned microarray images. This is the most important procedure for obtaining biologically reliable data. Currently most microarray image processing systems require burdensome manual block/spot indexing work. Since the amount of experimental data is increasing very quickly, automated microarray image analysis software becomes important. In this paper, we propose two automated methods for analyzing microarray images. First, we propose the extended -regular sequence to index blocks and spots, which enables a novel automatic gridding procedure. Second, we provide a methodology, hierarchical metagrid alignment, to allow reliable and efficient batch processing for a set of microarray images. Experimental results show that the proposed methods are more reliable and convenient than the commercial tools.

  5. Can Archival Tissue Reveal Answers to Modern Research Questions?: Computer-Aided Histological Assessment of Neuroblastoma Tumours Collected over 60 Years

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Albert Chetcuti

    2014-02-01

    Full Text Available Despite neuroblastoma being the most common extracranial solid cancer in childhood, it is still a rare disease. Consequently, the unavailability of tissue for research limits the statistical power of studies. Pathology archives are possible sources of rare tissue, which, if proven to remain consistent over time, could prove useful to research of rare disease types. We applied immunohistochemistry to investigate whether long term storage caused any changes to antigens used diagnostically for neuroblastoma. We constructed and quantitatively assessed a tissue microarray containing neuroblastoma archival material dating between 1950 and 2007. A total of 119 neuroblastoma tissue cores were included spanning 6 decades. Fourteen antibodies were screened across the tissue microarray (TMA. These included seven positive neuroblastoma diagnosis markers (NB84, Chromogranin A, NSE, Ki-67, INI1, Neurofilament Protein, Synaptophysin, two anticipated to be negative (S100A, CD99, and five research antibodies (IL-7, IL-7R, JAK1, JAK3, STAT5. The staining of these antibodies was evaluated using Aperio ImageScope software along with novel pattern recognition and quantification algorithms. This analysis demonstrated that marker signal intensity did not decrease over time and that storage for 60 years had little effect on antigenicity. The construction and assessment of this neuroblastoma TMA has demonstrated the feasibility of using archival samples for research.

  6. Cell-Based Microarrays for In Vitro Toxicology

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wegener, Joachim

    2015-07-01

    DNA/RNA and protein microarrays have proven their outstanding bioanalytical performance throughout the past decades, given the unprecedented level of parallelization by which molecular recognition assays can be performed and analyzed. Cell microarrays (CMAs) make use of similar construction principles. They are applied to profile a given cell population with respect to the expression of specific molecular markers and also to measure functional cell responses to drugs and chemicals. This review focuses on the use of cell-based microarrays for assessing the cytotoxicity of drugs, toxins, or chemicals in general. It also summarizes CMA construction principles with respect to the cell types that are used for such microarrays, the readout parameters to assess toxicity, and the various formats that have been established and applied. The review ends with a critical comparison of CMAs and well-established microtiter plate (MTP) approaches.

  7. Automated MALDI Matrix Coating System for Multiple Tissue Samples for Imaging Mass Spectrometry

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mounfield, William P.; Garrett, Timothy J.

    2012-03-01

    Uniform matrix deposition on tissue samples for matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) is key for reproducible analyte ion signals. Current methods often result in nonhomogenous matrix deposition, and take time and effort to produce acceptable ion signals. Here we describe a fully-automated method for matrix deposition using an enclosed spray chamber and spray nozzle for matrix solution delivery. A commercial air-atomizing spray nozzle was modified and combined with solenoid controlled valves and a Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) to control and deliver the matrix solution. A spray chamber was employed to contain the nozzle, sample, and atomized matrix solution stream, and to prevent any interference from outside conditions as well as allow complete control of the sample environment. A gravity cup was filled with MALDI matrix solutions, including DHB in chloroform/methanol (50:50) at concentrations up to 60 mg/mL. Various samples (including rat brain tissue sections) were prepared using two deposition methods (spray chamber, inkjet). A linear ion trap equipped with an intermediate-pressure MALDI source was used for analyses. Optical microscopic examination showed a uniform coating of matrix crystals across the sample. Overall, the mass spectral images gathered from tissues coated using the spray chamber system were of better quality and more reproducible than from tissue specimens prepared by the inkjet deposition method.

  8. Comparing microarrays and next-generation sequencing technologies for microbial ecology research.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Roh, Seong Woon; Abell, Guy C J; Kim, Kyoung-Ho; Nam, Young-Do; Bae, Jin-Woo

    2010-06-01

    Recent advances in molecular biology have resulted in the application of DNA microarrays and next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies to the field of microbial ecology. This review aims to examine the strengths and weaknesses of each of the methodologies, including depth and ease of analysis, throughput and cost-effectiveness. It also intends to highlight the optimal application of each of the individual technologies toward the study of a particular environment and identify potential synergies between the two main technologies, whereby both sample number and coverage can be maximized. We suggest that the efficient use of microarray and NGS technologies will allow researchers to advance the field of microbial ecology, and importantly, improve our understanding of the role of microorganisms in their various environments.

  9. Metric learning for DNA microarray data analysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Takeuchi, Ichiro; Nakagawa, Masao; Seto, Masao

    2009-01-01

    In many microarray studies, gene set selection is an important preliminary step for subsequent main task such as tumor classification, cancer subtype identification, etc. In this paper, we investigate the possibility of using metric learning as an alternative to gene set selection. We develop a simple metric learning algorithm aiming to use it for microarray data analysis. Exploiting a property of the algorithm, we introduce a novel approach for extending the metric learning to be adaptive. We apply the algorithm to previously studied microarray data on malignant lymphoma subtype identification.

  10. Comparison of small n statistical tests of differential expression applied to microarrays

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lee Anna Y

    2009-02-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background DNA microarrays provide data for genome wide patterns of expression between observation classes. Microarray studies often have small samples sizes, however, due to cost constraints or specimen availability. This can lead to poor random error estimates and inaccurate statistical tests of differential expression. We compare the performance of the standard t-test, fold change, and four small n statistical test methods designed to circumvent these problems. We report results of various normalization methods for empirical microarray data and of various random error models for simulated data. Results Three Empirical Bayes methods (CyberT, BRB, and limma t-statistics were the most effective statistical tests across simulated and both 2-colour cDNA and Affymetrix experimental data. The CyberT regularized t-statistic in particular was able to maintain expected false positive rates with simulated data showing high variances at low gene intensities, although at the cost of low true positive rates. The Local Pooled Error (LPE test introduced a bias that lowered false positive rates below theoretically expected values and had lower power relative to the top performers. The standard two-sample t-test and fold change were also found to be sub-optimal for detecting differentially expressed genes. The generalized log transformation was shown to be beneficial in improving results with certain data sets, in particular high variance cDNA data. Conclusion Pre-processing of data influences performance and the proper combination of pre-processing and statistical testing is necessary for obtaining the best results. All three Empirical Bayes methods assessed in our study are good choices for statistical tests for small n microarray studies for both Affymetrix and cDNA data. Choice of method for a particular study will depend on software and normalization preferences.

  11. Rapid column extraction method for actinides and strontium in fish and other animal tissue samples

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Maxwell III, S.L.; Faison, D.M.

    2008-01-01

    The analysis of actinides and radiostrontium in animal tissue samples is very important for environmental monitoring. There is a need to measure actinide isotopes and strontium with very low detection limits in animal tissue samples, including fish, deer, hogs, beef and shellfish. A new, rapid separation method has been developed that allows the measurement of plutonium, neptunium, uranium, americium, curium and strontium isotopes in large animal tissue samples (100-200 g) with high chemical recoveries and effective removal of matrix interferences. This method uses stacked TEVA Resin R , TRU Resin R and DGA Resin R cartridges from Eichrom Technologies (Darien, IL, USA) that allows the rapid separation of plutonium (Pu), neptunium (Np), uranium (U), americium (Am), and curium (Cm) using a single multi-stage column combined with alphaspectrometry. Strontium is collected on Sr Resin R from Eichrom Technologies (Darien, IL, USA). After acid digestion and furnace heating of the animal tissue samples, the actinides and 89/90 Sr are separated using column extraction chromatography. This method has been shown to be effective over a wide range of animal tissue matrices. Vacuum box cartridge technology with rapid flow rates is used to minimize sample preparation time. (author)

  12. A workflow to preserve genome-quality tissue samples from plants in botanical gardens and arboreta1

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gostel, Morgan R.; Kelloff, Carol; Wallick, Kyle; Funk, Vicki A.

    2016-01-01

    Premise of the study: Internationally, gardens hold diverse living collections that can be preserved for genomic research. Workflows have been developed for genomic tissue sampling in other taxa (e.g., vertebrates), but are inadequate for plants. We outline a workflow for tissue sampling intended for two audiences: botanists interested in genomics research and garden staff who plan to voucher living collections. Methods and Results: Standard herbarium methods are used to collect vouchers, label information and images are entered into a publicly accessible database, and leaf tissue is preserved in silica and liquid nitrogen. A five-step approach for genomic tissue sampling is presented for sampling from living collections according to current best practices. Conclusions: Collecting genome-quality samples from gardens is an economical and rapid way to make available for scientific research tissue from the diversity of plants on Earth. The Global Genome Initiative will facilitate and lead this endeavor through international partnerships. PMID:27672517

  13. Brachyury, SOX-9, and Podoplanin, New Markers in the Skull Base Chordoma Vs Chondrosarcoma Differential: A Tissue Microarray Based Comparative Analysis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Oakley, GJ; Fuhrer, K; Seethala, RR

    2014-01-01

    The distinction between chondrosarcoma and chordoma of the skull base/head and neck is prognostically important; however, both have sufficient morphologic overlap to make distinction difficult. As a result of gene expression studies, additional candidate markers have been proposed to help in this distinction. Hence, we sought to evaluate the performance of new markers: brachyury, SOX-9, and podoplanin alongside the more traditional markers glial fibrillary acid protein, carcinoembryonic antigen, CD24 and epithelial membrane antigen. Paraffin blocks from 103 skull base/head and neck chondroid tumors from 70 patients were retrieved (1969-2007). Diagnoses were made based on morphology and/or whole section immunohistochemistry for cytokeratin and S100 protein yielding 79 chordomas (comprising 45 chondroid chordomas and 34 conventional chordomas), and 24 chondrosarcomas. A tissue microarray containing 0.6 mm cores of each tumor in triplicate was constructed using a manual array (MTA-1, Beecher Instruments). For visualization of staining, the ImmPRESS detection system (Vector Laboratories) with 2 - diaminobenzidine substrate was used. Sensitivities and specificities were calculated for each marker. Core loss from the microarray ranged from 25-29% yielding 66-78 viable cases per stain. The classic marker, cytokeratin, still has the best performance characteristics. When combined with brachyury, accuracy improves slightly (sensitivity and specificity for detection of chordoma 98% and 100%, respectively). Positivity for both epithelial membrane antigen and AE1/AE3 had a sensitivity of 90% and a specificity of 100% for detecting chordoma in this study. SOX-9 is apparently common to both notochordal and cartilaginous differentiation, and is not useful in the chordoma-chondrosarcoma differential diagnosis. Glial fibrillary acid protein, carcinoembryonic antigen, CD24, and epithelial membrane antigen did not outperform other markers, and are less useful in the diagnosis of

  14. Probe Selection for DNA Microarrays using OligoWiz

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Wernersson, Rasmus; Juncker, Agnieszka; Nielsen, Henrik Bjørn

    2007-01-01

    Nucleotide abundance measurements using DNA microarray technology are possible only if appropriate probes complementary to the target nucleotides can be identified. Here we present a protocol for selecting DNA probes for microarrays using the OligoWiz application. OligoWiz is a client-server appl......Nucleotide abundance measurements using DNA microarray technology are possible only if appropriate probes complementary to the target nucleotides can be identified. Here we present a protocol for selecting DNA probes for microarrays using the OligoWiz application. OligoWiz is a client......-server application that offers a detailed graphical interface and real-time user interaction on the client side, and massive computer power and a large collection of species databases (400, summer 2007) on the server side. Probes are selected according to five weighted scores: cross-hybridization, deltaT(m), folding...... computer skills and can be executed from any Internet-connected computer. The probe selection procedure for a standard microarray design targeting all yeast transcripts can be completed in 1 h....

  15. Proteomic analysis of tissue samples in translational breast cancer research

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Gromov, Pavel; Moreira, José; Gromova, Irina

    2014-01-01

    In the last decade, many proteomic technologies have been applied, with varying success, to the study of tissue samples of breast carcinoma for protein expression profiling in order to discover protein biomarkers/signatures suitable for: characterization and subtyping of tumors; early diagnosis...... the translation of basic discoveries into the daily breast cancer clinical practice. In particular, we address major issues in experimental design by reviewing the strengths and weaknesses of current proteomic strategies in the context of the analysis of human breast tissue specimens....

  16. Hybridization chain reaction amplification for highly sensitive fluorescence detection of DNA with dextran coated microarrays.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chao, Jie; Li, Zhenhua; Li, Jing; Peng, Hongzhen; Su, Shao; Li, Qian; Zhu, Changfeng; Zuo, Xiaolei; Song, Shiping; Wang, Lianhui; Wang, Lihua

    2016-07-15

    Microarrays of biomolecules hold great promise in the fields of genomics, proteomics, and clinical assays on account of their remarkably parallel and high-throughput assay capability. However, the fluorescence detection used in most conventional DNA microarrays is still limited by sensitivity. In this study, we have demonstrated a novel universal and highly sensitive platform for fluorescent detection of sequence specific DNA at the femtomolar level by combining dextran-coated microarrays with hybridization chain reaction (HCR) signal amplification. Three-dimensional dextran matrix was covalently coated on glass surface as the scaffold to immobilize DNA recognition probes to increase the surface binding capacity and accessibility. DNA nanowire tentacles were formed on the matrix surface for efficient signal amplification by capturing multiple fluorescent molecules in a highly ordered way. By quantifying microscopic fluorescent signals, the synergetic effects of dextran and HCR greatly improved sensitivity of DNA microarrays, with a detection limit of 10fM (1×10(5) molecules). This detection assay could recognize one-base mismatch with fluorescence signals dropped down to ~20%. This cost-effective microarray platform also worked well with samples in serum and thus shows great potential for clinical diagnosis. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  17. Mapping transcriptome profiles of in vitro iPSC-derived cardiac differentiation to in utero heart development

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xing Li

    2016-03-01

    Full Text Available The dataset includes microarray data (Affymetrix Mouse Genome 430 2.0 Array from WT and Nos3−/− mouse embryonic heart ventricular tissues at 14.5 days post coitum (E14.5, induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs derived from WT and Nos3−/− mouse tail tip fibroblasts, iPSC-differentiated cardiomyocytes at Day 11, and mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs and differentiated cardiomyocytes as positive controls for mouse iPSC differentiation. Both in utero (using embryonic heart tissues and in vitro (using iPSCs and differentiated cells microarray datasets were deposited to the NCBI Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO database. The deposited data in GEO include raw microarray data, metadata for sample source information, experimental design, sample and data processing, and gene expression matrix. The data are available under GEO Access Number GSE69317 (GSE69315 for tissue sample microarray data, GSE69316 for iPSCs microarray data, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo/query/acc.cgi?acc= GSE69317. Keywords: Induced pluripotent stem cell, Cardiac development, Nos3 knockout, Disease modeling, Microarray analysis

  18. Microarray-based method for the parallel analysis of genotypes and expression profiles of wood-forming tissues in Eucalyptus grandis

    CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

    Barros, E

    2009-05-01

    Full Text Available of Eucalyptus grandis planting stock that exhibit preferred wood qualities is thus a priority of the South African forestry industry. The researchers used microarray-based DNA-amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) analysis in combination with expression...

  19. Sample Preparation of Corn Seed Tissue to Prevent Analyte Relocations for Mass Spectrometry Imaging

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kim, Shin Hye; Kim, Jeongkwon; Lee, Young Jin; Lee, Tae Geol; Yoon, Sohee

    2017-08-01

    Corn seed tissue sections were prepared by the tape support method using an adhesive tape, and mass spectrometry imaging (MSI) was performed. The effect of heat generated during sample preparation was investigated by time-of-flight secondary mass spectrometry (TOF-SIMS) imaging of corn seed tissue prepared by the tape support and the thaw-mounted methods. Unlike thaw-mounted sample preparation, the tape support method does not cause imaging distortion because of the absence of heat, which can cause migration of the analytes on the sample. By applying the tape-support method, the corn seed tissue was prepared without structural damage and MSI with accurate spatial information of analytes was successfully performed.

  20. Sample Preparation of Corn Seed Tissue to Prevent Analyte Relocations for Mass Spectrometry Imaging.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kim, Shin Hye; Kim, Jeongkwon; Lee, Young Jin; Lee, Tae Geol; Yoon, Sohee

    2017-08-01

    Corn seed tissue sections were prepared by the tape support method using an adhesive tape, and mass spectrometry imaging (MSI) was performed. The effect of heat generated during sample preparation was investigated by time-of-flight secondary mass spectrometry (TOF-SIMS) imaging of corn seed tissue prepared by the tape support and the thaw-mounted methods. Unlike thaw-mounted sample preparation, the tape support method does not cause imaging distortion because of the absence of heat, which can cause migration of the analytes on the sample. By applying the tape-support method, the corn seed tissue was prepared without structural damage and MSI with accurate spatial information of analytes was successfully performed. Graphical Abstract ᅟ.

  1. High-throughput miRNA profiling of human melanoma blood samples

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rass Knuth

    2010-06-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background MicroRNA (miRNA signatures are not only found in cancer tissue but also in blood of cancer patients. Specifically, miRNA detection in blood offers the prospect of a non-invasive analysis tool. Methods Using a microarray based approach we screened almost 900 human miRNAs to detect miRNAs that are deregulated in their expression in blood cells of melanoma patients. We analyzed 55 blood samples, including 20 samples of healthy individuals, 24 samples of melanoma patients as test set, and 11 samples of melanoma patients as independent validation set. Results A hypothesis test based approch detected 51 differentially regulated miRNAs, including 21 miRNAs that were downregulated in blood cells of melanoma patients and 30 miRNAs that were upregulated in blood cells of melanoma patients as compared to blood cells of healthy controls. The tets set and the independent validation set of the melanoma samples showed a high correlation of fold changes (0.81. Applying hierarchical clustering and principal component analysis we found that blood samples of melanoma patients and healthy individuals can be well differentiated from each other based on miRNA expression analysis. Using a subset of 16 significant deregulated miRNAs, we were able to reach a classification accuracy of 97.4%, a specificity of 95% and a sensitivity of 98.9% by supervised analysis. MiRNA microarray data were validated by qRT-PCR. Conclusions Our study provides strong evidence for miRNA expression signatures of blood cells as useful biomarkers for melanoma.

  2. Oxidant-antioxidant status in tissue samples of oral leukoplakia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kumar Chandan Srivastava

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Background: Imbalances between the oxidant-antioxidant status have been implicated in the pathogenesis of several diseases, including oral cancer. Majority of oral cancer are preceded by a well-recognized group of pre-malignant lesions. However, only a small fraction of those lesions, undergo malignant transformation. Hence, there is a great need to identify biological markers, which will assist in identifying lesion carrying high-risk. This study aims to evaluate and compare the status of oxidative stress and antioxidant enzymes in tissue samples of patients with various clinicopathological stages of oral pre-malignancy. Materials and Methods: A case control study consisting of 20 new histopathologically proven leukoplakia patients and equal number of age, sex, and habit matched healthy subjects were recruited for this study. Their tissue samples were subjected to evaluation of lipid peroxidation product, thiobarbituric acid reactive substances and antioxidant enzymes, namely, superoxide dismutase (SOD, catalase (CAT, reduced glutathione (GSH, and glutathione peroxidase (GPx using spectrophotometric methods. The data are expressed as mean ± standard deviation. The statistical comparisons were performed by independent Student′s unpaired t-test and one-way analysis of variance. Pearson′s correlation was performed for the biochemical parameters within the group and between the groups. For statistically significant correlations, simple linear regression was performed. P- value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: Significant reduction in lipid peroxidation (P < 0.001 SOD and CAT (P < 0.001 was observed in the tissue of leukoplakia patients as compared to the healthy controls. On the other hand, GSH and GPx were significantly increased in tumor samples. Conclusion: Reduced lipid peroxidation and increased activity of GSH and GPx provides the suitable environment for the tumor growth and malignant transformation in the later

  3. Normalization and gene p-value estimation: issues in microarray data processing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fundel, Katrin; Küffner, Robert; Aigner, Thomas; Zimmer, Ralf

    2008-05-28

    Numerous methods exist for basic processing, e.g. normalization, of microarray gene expression data. These methods have an important effect on the final analysis outcome. Therefore, it is crucial to select methods appropriate for a given dataset in order to assure the validity and reliability of expression data analysis. Furthermore, biological interpretation requires expression values for genes, which are often represented by several spots or probe sets on a microarray. How to best integrate spot/probe set values into gene values has so far been a somewhat neglected problem. We present a case study comparing different between-array normalization methods with respect to the identification of differentially expressed genes. Our results show that it is feasible and necessary to use prior knowledge on gene expression measurements to select an adequate normalization method for the given data. Furthermore, we provide evidence that combining spot/probe set p-values into gene p-values for detecting differentially expressed genes has advantages compared to combining expression values for spots/probe sets into gene expression values. The comparison of different methods suggests to use Stouffer's method for this purpose. The study has been conducted on gene expression experiments investigating human joint cartilage samples of osteoarthritis related groups: a cDNA microarray (83 samples, four groups) and an Affymetrix (26 samples, two groups) data set. The apparently straight forward steps of gene expression data analysis, e.g. between-array normalization and detection of differentially regulated genes, can be accomplished by numerous different methods. We analyzed multiple methods and the possible effects and thereby demonstrate the importance of the single decisions taken during data processing. We give guidelines for evaluating normalization outcomes. An overview of these effects via appropriate measures and plots compared to prior knowledge is essential for the biological

  4. Systematic interpretation of microarray data using experiment annotations

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Frohme Marcus

    2006-12-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Up to now, microarray data are mostly assessed in context with only one or few parameters characterizing the experimental conditions under study. More explicit experiment annotations, however, are highly useful for interpreting microarray data, when available in a statistically accessible format. Results We provide means to preprocess these additional data, and to extract relevant traits corresponding to the transcription patterns under study. We found correspondence analysis particularly well-suited for mapping such extracted traits. It visualizes associations both among and between the traits, the hereby annotated experiments, and the genes, revealing how they are all interrelated. Here, we apply our methods to the systematic interpretation of radioactive (single channel and two-channel data, stemming from model organisms such as yeast and drosophila up to complex human cancer samples. Inclusion of technical parameters allows for identification of artifacts and flaws in experimental design. Conclusion Biological and clinical traits can act as landmarks in transcription space, systematically mapping the variance of large datasets from the predominant changes down toward intricate details.

  5. A NASBA on microgel-tethered molecular-beacon microarray for real-time microbial molecular diagnostics.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ma, Y; Dai, X; Hong, T; Munk, G B; Libera, M

    2016-12-19

    Despite their many advantages and successes, molecular beacon (MB) hybridization probes have not been extensively used in microarray formats because of the complicating probe-substrate interactions that increase the background intensity. We have previously shown that tethering to surface-patterned microgels is an effective means for localizing MB probes to specific surface locations in a microarray format while simultaneously maintaining them in as water-like an environment as possible and minimizing probe-surface interactions. Here we extend this approach to include both real-time detection together with integrated NASBA amplification. We fabricate small (∼250 μm × 250 μm) simplex, duplex, and five-plex assays with microarray spots of controllable size (∼20 μm diameter), position, and shape to detect bacteria and fungi in a bloodstream-infection model. The targets, primers, and microgel-tethered probes can be combined in a single isothermal reaction chamber with no post-amplification labelling. We extract total RNA from clinical blood samples and differentiate between Gram-positive and Gram-negative bloodstream infection in a duplex assay to detect RNA- amplicons. The sensitivity based on our current protocols in a simplex assay to detect specific ribosomal RNA sequences within total RNA extracted from S. aureus and E. coli cultures corresponds to tens of bacteria per ml. We furthermore show that the platform can detect RNA- amplicons from synthetic target DNA with 1 fM sensitivity in sample volumes that contain about 12 000 DNA molecules. These experiments demonstrate an alternative approach that can enable rapid and real-time microarray-based molecular diagnostics.

  6. Microintaglio Printing for Soft Lithography-Based in Situ Microarrays

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Manish Biyani

    2015-07-01

    Full Text Available Advances in lithographic approaches to fabricating bio-microarrays have been extensively explored over the last two decades. However, the need for pattern flexibility, a high density, a high resolution, affordability and on-demand fabrication is promoting the development of unconventional routes for microarray fabrication. This review highlights the development and uses of a new molecular lithography approach, called “microintaglio printing technology”, for large-scale bio-microarray fabrication using a microreactor array (µRA-based chip consisting of uniformly-arranged, femtoliter-size µRA molds. In this method, a single-molecule-amplified DNA microarray pattern is self-assembled onto a µRA mold and subsequently converted into a messenger RNA or protein microarray pattern by simultaneously producing and transferring (immobilizing a messenger RNA or a protein from a µRA mold to a glass surface. Microintaglio printing allows the self-assembly and patterning of in situ-synthesized biomolecules into high-density (kilo-giga-density, ordered arrays on a chip surface with µm-order precision. This holistic aim, which is difficult to achieve using conventional printing and microarray approaches, is expected to revolutionize and reshape proteomics. This review is not written comprehensively, but rather substantively, highlighting the versatility of microintaglio printing for developing a prerequisite platform for microarray technology for the postgenomic era.

  7. A Java-based tool for the design of classification microarrays.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Meng, Da; Broschat, Shira L; Call, Douglas R

    2008-08-04

    Classification microarrays are used for purposes such as identifying strains of bacteria and determining genetic relationships to understand the epidemiology of an infectious disease. For these cases, mixed microarrays, which are composed of DNA from more than one organism, are more effective than conventional microarrays composed of DNA from a single organism. Selection of probes is a key factor in designing successful mixed microarrays because redundant sequences are inefficient and limited representation of diversity can restrict application of the microarray. We have developed a Java-based software tool, called PLASMID, for use in selecting the minimum set of probe sequences needed to classify different groups of plasmids or bacteria. The software program was successfully applied to several different sets of data. The utility of PLASMID was illustrated using existing mixed-plasmid microarray data as well as data from a virtual mixed-genome microarray constructed from different strains of Streptococcus. Moreover, use of data from expression microarray experiments demonstrated the generality of PLASMID. In this paper we describe a new software tool for selecting a set of probes for a classification microarray. While the tool was developed for the design of mixed microarrays-and mixed-plasmid microarrays in particular-it can also be used to design expression arrays. The user can choose from several clustering methods (including hierarchical, non-hierarchical, and a model-based genetic algorithm), several probe ranking methods, and several different display methods. A novel approach is used for probe redundancy reduction, and probe selection is accomplished via stepwise discriminant analysis. Data can be entered in different formats (including Excel and comma-delimited text), and dendrogram, heat map, and scatter plot images can be saved in several different formats (including jpeg and tiff). Weights generated using stepwise discriminant analysis can be stored for

  8. A random sampling approach for robust estimation of tissue-to-plasma ratio from extremely sparse data.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chu, Hui-May; Ette, Ene I

    2005-09-02

    his study was performed to develop a new nonparametric approach for the estimation of robust tissue-to-plasma ratio from extremely sparsely sampled paired data (ie, one sample each from plasma and tissue per subject). Tissue-to-plasma ratio was estimated from paired/unpaired experimental data using independent time points approach, area under the curve (AUC) values calculated with the naïve data averaging approach, and AUC values calculated using sampling based approaches (eg, the pseudoprofile-based bootstrap [PpbB] approach and the random sampling approach [our proposed approach]). The random sampling approach involves the use of a 2-phase algorithm. The convergence of the sampling/resampling approaches was investigated, as well as the robustness of the estimates produced by different approaches. To evaluate the latter, new data sets were generated by introducing outlier(s) into the real data set. One to 2 concentration values were inflated by 10% to 40% from their original values to produce the outliers. Tissue-to-plasma ratios computed using the independent time points approach varied between 0 and 50 across time points. The ratio obtained from AUC values acquired using the naive data averaging approach was not associated with any measure of uncertainty or variability. Calculating the ratio without regard to pairing yielded poorer estimates. The random sampling and pseudoprofile-based bootstrap approaches yielded tissue-to-plasma ratios with uncertainty and variability. However, the random sampling approach, because of the 2-phase nature of its algorithm, yielded more robust estimates and required fewer replications. Therefore, a 2-phase random sampling approach is proposed for the robust estimation of tissue-to-plasma ratio from extremely sparsely sampled data.

  9. Immunohistochemistry - Microarray Analysis of Patients with Peritoneal Metastases of Appendiceal or Colorectal Origin

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Danielle E Green

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available BackgroundThe value of immunohistochemistry (IHC-microarray analysis of pathological specimens in the management of patients is controversial although preliminary data suggests potential benefit. We describe the characteristics of patients undergoing a commercially available IHC-microarray method in patients with peritoneal metastases (PM and the feasibility of this technique in this population.MethodsWe retrospectively analyzed consecutive patients with pathologically confirmed PM from appendiceal or colorectal primary who underwent Caris Molecular IntelligenceTM testing. IHC, microarray, FISH and mutational analysis were included and stratified by PCI score, histology and treatment characteristics. Statistical analysis was performed using non-parametric tests.ResultsOur study included 5 patients with appendiceal and 11 with colorectal PM. The median age of patients was 51 (IQR 39-65 years, with 11(68% female. The median PCI score of the patients was 17(IQR 10-25. Hyperthermic intra-peritoneal chemoperfusion (HIPEC was performed in 4 (80% patients with appendiceal primary tumors and 4 (36% with colorectal primary. KRAS mutations were encountered in 40% of appendiceal vs. 30% colorectal tumors, while BRAF mutations were seen in 40% of colorectal PM and none of the patients with appendiceal PM (p=0.06. IHC biomarker expression was not significantly different between the two primaries. Sufficient tumor for microarray analysis was found in 44% (n=7 patients, which was not associated with previous use of chemotherapy (p>0.20 for 5-FU/LV, Irinotecan and Oxaliplatin.ConclusionsIn a small sample of patients with peritoneal metastases, the feasibility and results of IHC-microarray staining based on a commercially available test is reported. The apparent high incidence of the BRAF mutation in patients with PM may potentially offer opportunities for novel therapeutics and suggest that IHC-microarray is a method that can be used in this population.

  10. Fabrication of Biomolecule Microarrays for Cell Immobilization Using Automated Microcontact Printing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Foncy, Julie; Estève, Aurore; Degache, Amélie; Colin, Camille; Cau, Jean Christophe; Malaquin, Laurent; Vieu, Christophe; Trévisiol, Emmanuelle

    2018-01-01

    Biomolecule microarrays are generally produced by conventional microarrayer, i.e., by contact or inkjet printing. Microcontact printing represents an alternative way of deposition of biomolecules on solid supports but even if various biomolecules have been successfully microcontact printed, the production of biomolecule microarrays in routine by microcontact printing remains a challenging task and needs an effective, fast, robust, and low-cost automation process. Here, we describe the production of biomolecule microarrays composed of extracellular matrix protein for the fabrication of cell microarrays by using an automated microcontact printing device. Large scale cell microarrays can be reproducibly obtained by this method.

  11. Identification of differentially expressed genes in cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma by microarray expression profiling

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sterry Wolfram

    2006-08-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Carcinogenesis is a multi-step process indicated by several genes up- or down-regulated during tumor progression. This study examined and identified differentially expressed genes in cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (SCC. Results Three different biopsies of 5 immunosuppressed organ-transplanted recipients each normal skin (all were pooled, actinic keratosis (AK (two were pooled, and invasive SCC and additionally 5 normal skin tissues from immunocompetent patients were analyzed. Thus, total RNA of 15 specimens were used for hybridization with Affymetrix HG-U133A microarray technology containing 22,283 genes. Data analyses were performed by prediction analysis of microarrays using nearest shrunken centroids with the threshold 3.5 and ANOVA analysis was independently performed in order to identify differentially expressed genes (p vs. AK and SCC were observed for 118 genes. Conclusion The majority of identified differentially expressed genes in cutaneous SCC were previously not described.

  12. A multiplex reverse transcription PCR and automated electronic microarray assay for detection and differentiation of seven viruses affecting swine.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Erickson, A; Fisher, M; Furukawa-Stoffer, T; Ambagala, A; Hodko, D; Pasick, J; King, D P; Nfon, C; Ortega Polo, R; Lung, O

    2018-04-01

    Microarray technology can be useful for pathogen detection as it allows simultaneous interrogation of the presence or absence of a large number of genetic signatures. However, most microarray assays are labour-intensive and time-consuming to perform. This study describes the development and initial evaluation of a multiplex reverse transcription (RT)-PCR and novel accompanying automated electronic microarray assay for simultaneous detection and differentiation of seven important viruses that affect swine (foot-and-mouth disease virus [FMDV], swine vesicular disease virus [SVDV], vesicular exanthema of swine virus [VESV], African swine fever virus [ASFV], classical swine fever virus [CSFV], porcine respiratory and reproductive syndrome virus [PRRSV] and porcine circovirus type 2 [PCV2]). The novel electronic microarray assay utilizes a single, user-friendly instrument that integrates and automates capture probe printing, hybridization, washing and reporting on a disposable electronic microarray cartridge with 400 features. This assay accurately detected and identified a total of 68 isolates of the seven targeted virus species including 23 samples of FMDV, representing all seven serotypes, and 10 CSFV strains, representing all three genotypes. The assay successfully detected viruses in clinical samples from the field, experimentally infected animals (as early as 1 day post-infection (dpi) for FMDV and SVDV, 4 dpi for ASFV, 5 dpi for CSFV), as well as in biological material that were spiked with target viruses. The limit of detection was 10 copies/μl for ASFV, PCV2 and PRRSV, 100 copies/μl for SVDV, CSFV, VESV and 1,000 copies/μl for FMDV. The electronic microarray component had reduced analytical sensitivity for several of the target viruses when compared with the multiplex RT-PCR. The integration of capture probe printing allows custom onsite array printing as needed, while electrophoretically driven hybridization generates results faster than conventional

  13. MOLECULAR METHODS (E.G., MICROARRAYS) APPLIED TO PLANT GENOMES FOR ASSESSING GENETIC CHANGE AND ENVIRONMENTAL STRESS

    Science.gov (United States)

    This is a technical document that presents a detailed sample standard operating procedure (S.O.P.) for preparing plant nucleic acid samples for microarray analyses using commercial ¿chips¿ such as those sold by Affymetrix. It also presents the application of a commercially availa...

  14. Mantle biopsy: a technique for nondestructive tissue-sampling of freshwater mussels

    Science.gov (United States)

    David J. Berg; Wendell R. Haag; Sheldon I. Guttman; James B. Sickel

    1995-01-01

    Mantle biopsy is a means of obtaining tissue samples for genetic, physiological, and contaminant studies of bivalves; but the effects of this biopsy on survival have not been determined. We describe a simple technique for obtaining such samples from unionacean bivalves and how we compared survival among biopsied and control organisms in field experiments. Survival was...

  15. An algorithm for finding biologically significant features in microarray data based on a priori manifold learning.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zena M Hira

    Full Text Available Microarray databases are a large source of genetic data, which, upon proper analysis, could enhance our understanding of biology and medicine. Many microarray experiments have been designed to investigate the genetic mechanisms of cancer, and analytical approaches have been applied in order to classify different types of cancer or distinguish between cancerous and non-cancerous tissue. However, microarrays are high-dimensional datasets with high levels of noise and this causes problems when using machine learning methods. A popular approach to this problem is to search for a set of features that will simplify the structure and to some degree remove the noise from the data. The most widely used approach to feature extraction is principal component analysis (PCA which assumes a multivariate Gaussian model of the data. More recently, non-linear methods have been investigated. Among these, manifold learning algorithms, for example Isomap, aim to project the data from a higher dimensional space onto a lower dimension one. We have proposed a priori manifold learning for finding a manifold in which a representative set of microarray data is fused with relevant data taken from the KEGG pathway database. Once the manifold has been constructed the raw microarray data is projected onto it and clustering and classification can take place. In contrast to earlier fusion based methods, the prior knowledge from the KEGG databases is not used in, and does not bias the classification process--it merely acts as an aid to find the best space in which to search the data. In our experiments we have found that using our new manifold method gives better classification results than using either PCA or conventional Isomap.

  16. Identification and prognostic value of anterior gradient protein 2 expression in breast cancer based on tissue microarray.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Guo, Jilong; Gong, Guohua; Zhang, Bin

    2017-07-01

    Breast cancer has attracted substantial attention as one of the major cancers causing death in women. It is crucial to find potential biomarkers of prognostic value in breast cancer. In this study, the expression pattern of anterior gradient protein 2 in breast cancer was identified based on the main molecular subgroups. Through analysis of 69 samples from the Gene Expression Omnibus database, we found that anterior gradient protein 2 expression was significantly higher in non-triple-negative breast cancer tissues compared with normal tissues and triple-negative breast cancer tissues (p gradient protein 2 expression pattern. Furthermore, we performed immunohistochemical analysis. The quantification results revealed that anterior gradient protein 2 is highly expressed in non-triple-negative breast cancer (grade 3 excluded) and grade 1 + 2 (triple-negative breast cancer excluded) tumours compared with normal tissues. Anterior gradient protein 2 was significantly highly expressed in non-triple-negative breast cancer (grade 3 excluded) and non-triple-negative breast cancer tissues compared with triple-negative breast cancer tissues (p gradient protein 2 was significantly highly expressed in grade 1 + 2 (triple-negative breast cancer excluded) and grade 1 + 2 tissues compared with grade 3 tissues (p gradient protein 2 expression was significantly associated with histologic type, histological grade, oestrogen status and progesterone status. Univariate analysis of clinicopathological variables showed that anterior gradient protein 2 expression, tumour size and lymph node status were significantly correlated with overall survival in patients with grade 1 and 2 tumours. Cox multivariate analysis revealed anterior gradient protein 2 as a putative independent indicator of unfavourable outcomes (p = 0.031). All these data clearly showed that anterior gradient protein 2 is highly expressed in breast cancer and can be regarded as a putative biomarker for

  17. Deregulated genes in sporadic vestibular schwannomas

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Cayé-Thomasen, Per; Helweg-Larsen, Rehannah Holga Andrea; Stangerup, Sven-Eric

    2010-01-01

    In search of genes associated with vestibular schwannoma tumorigenesis, this study examines the gene expression in human vestibular nerve versus vestibular schwannoma tissue samples using microarray technology.......In search of genes associated with vestibular schwannoma tumorigenesis, this study examines the gene expression in human vestibular nerve versus vestibular schwannoma tissue samples using microarray technology....

  18. Exploring the use of internal and externalcontrols for assessing microarray technical performance

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Game Laurence

    2010-12-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background The maturing of gene expression microarray technology and interest in the use of microarray-based applications for clinical and diagnostic applications calls for quantitative measures of quality. This manuscript presents a retrospective study characterizing several approaches to assess technical performance of microarray data measured on the Affymetrix GeneChip platform, including whole-array metrics and information from a standard mixture of external spike-in and endogenous internal controls. Spike-in controls were found to carry the same information about technical performance as whole-array metrics and endogenous "housekeeping" genes. These results support the use of spike-in controls as general tools for performance assessment across time, experimenters and array batches, suggesting that they have potential for comparison of microarray data generated across species using different technologies. Results A layered PCA modeling methodology that uses data from a number of classes of controls (spike-in hybridization, spike-in polyA+, internal RNA degradation, endogenous or "housekeeping genes" was used for the assessment of microarray data quality. The controls provide information on multiple stages of the experimental protocol (e.g., hybridization, RNA amplification. External spike-in, hybridization and RNA labeling controls provide information related to both assay and hybridization performance whereas internal endogenous controls provide quality information on the biological sample. We find that the variance of the data generated from the external and internal controls carries critical information about technical performance; the PCA dissection of this variance is consistent with whole-array quality assessment based on a number of quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC metrics. Conclusions These results provide support for the use of both external and internal RNA control data to assess the technical quality of microarray

  19. Using microarray analysis as a prognostic and predictive tool in oncology: focus on breast cancer and normal tissue toxicity

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Nuyten, Dimitry S. A.; van de Vijver, Marc J.

    2008-01-01

    Microarray analysis makes it possible to study the expression levels of tens of thousands of genes in one single experiment and is widely available for research purposes. Gene expression profiling is currently being used in many research projects aimed at identifying gene expression signatures in

  20. cDNA Microarray Analysis of Serially Sampled Cervical Cancer Specimens From Patients Treated With Thermochemoradiotherapy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Borkamo, Erling Dahl; Schem, Baard-Christian; Fluge, Oystein; Bruland, Ove; Dahl, Olav; Mella, Olav

    2009-01-01

    Purpose: To elucidate changes in gene expression after treatment with regional thermochemoradiotherapy in locally advanced squamous cell cervical cancer. Methods and Materials: Tru-Cut biopsy specimens were serially collected from 16 patients. Microarray gene expression levels before and 24 h after the first and second trimodality treatment sessions were compared. Pathway and network analyses were conducted by use of Ingenuity Pathways Analysis (IPA; Ingenuity Systems, Redwood City, CA). Single gene expressions were analyzed by quantitative real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction. Results: We detected 53 annotated genes that were differentially expressed after trimodality treatment. Central in the three top networks detected by IPA were interferon alfa, interferon beta, and interferon gamma receptor; nuclear factor κB; and tumor necrosis factor, respectively. These genes encode proteins that are important in regulation cell signaling, proliferation, gene expression, and immune stimulation. Biological processes over-represented among the 53 genes were fibrosis, tumorigenesis, and immune response. Conclusions: Microarrays showed minor changes in gene expression after thermochemoradiotherapy in locally advanced cervical cancer. We detected 53 differentially expressed genes, mainly involved in fibrosis, tumorigenesis, and immune response. A limitation with the use of serial biopsy specimens was low quality of ribonucleic acid from tumors that respond to highly effective therapy. Another 'key limitation' is timing of the post-treatment biopsy, because 24 h may be too late to adequately assess the impact of hyperthermia on gene expression.

  1. Overexpression of arginine transporter CAT-1 is associated with accumulation of L-arginine and cell growth in human colorectal cancer tissue.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ying Lu

    Full Text Available We previously showed that L-arginine (Arg accumulates in colorectal cancer tissues. The aim of this study was to investigate the mechanism by which Arg accumulates and determine its biological significance. The concentration of Arg and Citrulline (Cit in sera and tumor tissues from colorectal cancer (CRC patients was analyzed by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC. The expression of Arg transporters was analyzed by quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR and immunohistochemical analysis of tissue microarray. We also transfected the colon cancer cell line HCT-116 with siRNA specific for the Arg transporter CAT-1 and measured the induction of apoptosis by flow cytometry and cell proliferation by MTT assay. Consistent with our previous results, serum Arg and Cit concentrations in colorectal cancer patients were significantly lower than those in normal volunteers, while Arg and Cit concentrations in colorectal cancer tissues were significantly higher than in matched adjacent normal colon tissues. Quantitative RT-PCR showed that the CAT-1 gene was highly overexpressed in 70.5% of colorectal cancer tissue samples relative to adjacent normal colon tissues in all 122 patients with colorectal cancer. Immunohistochemical analysis of tissue microarray confirmed that the expression of CAT-1 was higher in all 25 colorectal cancer tissues tested. CAT-1 siRNA significantly induced apoptosis of HCT-116 cells and subsequently inhibited cell growth by 20-50%. Our findings indicate that accumulation of L-Arg and Cit and cell growth in colorectal cancer tissues is associated with over-expression of the Arg transporter gene CAT-1. Our results may be useful for the development of molecular diagnostic tools and targeted therapy for colorectal cancer.

  2. Sex identification of polar bears from blood and tissue samples

    Science.gov (United States)

    Amstrup, Steven C.; Garner, G.W.; Cronin, M.A.; Patton, J.C.

    1993-01-01

    Polar bears (Ursus maritimus) can be adversely affected by hunting and other human perturbations because of low population densities and low reproduction rates. The sustainable take of adult females may be as low as 1.5% of the population. Females and accompanying young are most vulnerable to hunting, and hunters have not consistently reported the sex composition of the harvest, therefore a method to confirm the sexes of polar bears harvested in Alaska is needed. Evidence of the sex of harvested animals is often not available, but blood or other tissue samples often are. We extracted DNA from tissue and blood samples, and amplified segments of zinc finger (ZFX and ZFY) genes from both X and Y chromosomes with the polymerase chain reaction. Digestion of amplified portions of the X chromosome with the restriction enzyme HaeIII resulted in subdivision of the original amplified segment into four smaller fragments. Digestion with HaeIII did not subdivide the original segment amplified from the Y chromosome. The differing fragment sizes produced patterns in gel electrophoresis that distinguished samples from male and female bears 100% of the time. This technique is applicable to the investigation of many wildlife management and research questions.

  3. Evaluation of the performance of a p53 sequencing microarray chip using 140 previously sequenced bladder tumor samples

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Wikman, Friedrik; Lu, Ming-Lan; Andersen, Thomas Thykjær

    2000-01-01

    sensitivity, from 0.92 to 0.84, leading to a much better concordance (92%) with results obtained by traditional sequencing. The chip method detected as little as 1% mutated DNA. Conclusions: Microarray-based sequencing is a novel option to assess TP53 mutations, representing a fast and inexpensive method...

  4. A probable risk factor of female breast cancer: study on benign and malignant breast tissue samples.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rehman, Sohaila; Husnain, Syed M

    2014-01-01

    The study reports enhanced Fe, Cu, and Zn contents in breast tissues, a probable risk factor of breast cancer in females. Forty-one formalin-fixed breast tissues were analyzed using atomic absorption spectrophotometry. Twenty malignant, six adjacent to malignant and 15 benign tissues samples were investigated. The malignant tissues samples were of grade 11 and type invasive ductal carcinoma. The quantitative comparison between the elemental levels measured in the two types of specimen (benign and malignant) tissues (removed after surgery) suggests significant elevation of these metals (Fe, Cu, and Zn) in the malignant tissue. The specimens were collected just after mastectomy of women aged 19 to 59 years from the hospitals of Islamabad and Rawalpindi, Pakistan. Most of the patients belong to urban areas of Pakistan. Findings of study depict that these elements have a promising role in the initiation and development of carcinoma as consistent pattern of elevation for Fe, Cu, and Zn was observed. The results showed the excessive accumulation of Fe (229 ± 121 mg/L) in malignant breast tissue samples of patients (p factor of breast cancer. In order to validate our method of analysis, certified reference material muscle tissue lyophilized (IAEA) MA-M-2/TM was analyzed for metal studied. Determined concentrations were quite in good agreement with certified levels. Asymmetric concentration distribution for Fe, Cu, and Zn was observed in both malignant and benign tissue samples.

  5. A Java-based tool for the design of classification microarrays

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Broschat Shira L

    2008-08-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Classification microarrays are used for purposes such as identifying strains of bacteria and determining genetic relationships to understand the epidemiology of an infectious disease. For these cases, mixed microarrays, which are composed of DNA from more than one organism, are more effective than conventional microarrays composed of DNA from a single organism. Selection of probes is a key factor in designing successful mixed microarrays because redundant sequences are inefficient and limited representation of diversity can restrict application of the microarray. We have developed a Java-based software tool, called PLASMID, for use in selecting the minimum set of probe sequences needed to classify different groups of plasmids or bacteria. Results The software program was successfully applied to several different sets of data. The utility of PLASMID was illustrated using existing mixed-plasmid microarray data as well as data from a virtual mixed-genome microarray constructed from different strains of Streptococcus. Moreover, use of data from expression microarray experiments demonstrated the generality of PLASMID. Conclusion In this paper we describe a new software tool for selecting a set of probes for a classification microarray. While the tool was developed for the design of mixed microarrays–and mixed-plasmid microarrays in particular–it can also be used to design expression arrays. The user can choose from several clustering methods (including hierarchical, non-hierarchical, and a model-based genetic algorithm, several probe ranking methods, and several different display methods. A novel approach is used for probe redundancy reduction, and probe selection is accomplished via stepwise discriminant analysis. Data can be entered in different formats (including Excel and comma-delimited text, and dendrogram, heat map, and scatter plot images can be saved in several different formats (including jpeg and tiff. Weights

  6. Strategies for comparing gene expression profiles from different microarray platforms: application to a case-control experiment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Severgnini, Marco; Bicciato, Silvio; Mangano, Eleonora; Scarlatti, Francesca; Mezzelani, Alessandra; Mattioli, Michela; Ghidoni, Riccardo; Peano, Clelia; Bonnal, Raoul; Viti, Federica; Milanesi, Luciano; De Bellis, Gianluca; Battaglia, Cristina

    2006-06-01

    Meta-analysis of microarray data is increasingly important, considering both the availability of multiple platforms using disparate technologies and the accumulation in public repositories of data sets from different laboratories. We addressed the issue of comparing gene expression profiles from two microarray platforms by devising a standardized investigative strategy. We tested this procedure by studying MDA-MB-231 cells, which undergo apoptosis on treatment with resveratrol. Gene expression profiles were obtained using high-density, short-oligonucleotide, single-color microarray platforms: GeneChip (Affymetrix) and CodeLink (Amersham). Interplatform analyses were carried out on 8414 common transcripts represented on both platforms, as identified by LocusLink ID, representing 70.8% and 88.6% of annotated GeneChip and CodeLink features, respectively. We identified 105 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) on CodeLink and 42 DEGs on GeneChip. Among them, only 9 DEGs were commonly identified by both platforms. Multiple analyses (BLAST alignment of probes with target sequences, gene ontology, literature mining, and quantitative real-time PCR) permitted us to investigate the factors contributing to the generation of platform-dependent results in single-color microarray experiments. An effective approach to cross-platform comparison involves microarrays of similar technologies, samples prepared by identical methods, and a standardized battery of bioinformatic and statistical analyses.

  7. Computational biology of genome expression and regulation--a review of microarray bioinformatics.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Junbai

    2008-01-01

    Microarray technology is being used widely in various biomedical research areas; the corresponding microarray data analysis is an essential step toward the best utilizing of array technologies. Here we review two components of the microarray data analysis: a low level of microarray data analysis that emphasizes the designing, the quality control, and the preprocessing of microarray experiments, then a high level of microarray data analysis that focuses on the domain-specific microarray applications such as tumor classification, biomarker prediction, analyzing array CGH experiments, and reverse engineering of gene expression networks. Additionally, we will review the recent development of building a predictive model in genome expression and regulation studies. This review may help biologists grasp a basic knowledge of microarray bioinformatics as well as its potential impact on the future evolvement of biomedical research fields.

  8. Development and application of an oligonucleotide microarray and real-time quantitative PCR for detection of wastewater bacterial pathogens

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Lee, Dae-Young [National Water Research Institute, Environment Canada, 867 Lakeshore Road, Burlington, Ontario, L7R 4A6 (Canada)], E-mail: daeyoung.lee@ec.gc.ca; Lauder, Heather; Cruwys, Heather; Falletta, Patricia [National Water Research Institute, Environment Canada, 867 Lakeshore Road, Burlington, Ontario, L7R 4A6 (Canada); Beaudette, Lee A. [Environmental Science and Technology Centre, Environment Canada, 335 River Road South, Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0H3 (Canada)], E-mail: lee.beaudette@ec.gc.ca

    2008-07-15

    Conventional microbial water quality test methods are well known for their technical limitations, such as lack of direct pathogen detection capacity and low throughput capability. The microarray assay has recently emerged as a promising alternative for environmental pathogen monitoring. In this study, bacterial pathogens were detected in municipal wastewater using a microarray equipped with short oligonucleotide probes targeting 16S rRNA sequences. To date, 62 probes have been designed against 38 species, 4 genera, and 1 family of pathogens. The detection sensitivity of the microarray for a waterborne pathogen Aeromonas hydrophila was determined to be approximately 1.0% of the total DNA, or approximately 10{sup 3}A. hydrophila cells per sample. The efficacy of the DNA microarray was verified in a parallel study where pathogen genes and E. coli cells were enumerated using real-time quantitative PCR (qPCR) and standard membrane filter techniques, respectively. The microarray and qPCR successfully detected multiple wastewater pathogen species at different stages of the disinfection process (i.e. secondary effluents vs. disinfected final effluents) and at two treatment plants employing different disinfection methods (i.e. chlorination vs. UV irradiation). This result demonstrates the effectiveness of the DNA microarray as a semi-quantitative, high throughput pathogen monitoring tool for municipal wastewater.

  9. Cyclin D1 and Ewing's sarcoma/PNET: A microarray analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fagone, Paolo; Nicoletti, Ferdinando; Salvatorelli, Lucia; Musumeci, Giuseppe; Magro, Gaetano

    2015-10-01

    Recent immunohistochemical analyses have showed that cyclin D1 is expressed in soft tissue Ewing's sarcoma/peripheral neuroectodermal tumor (PNET) of childhood and adolescents, while it is undetectable in both embryonal and alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma. In the present paper, microarray analysis provided evidence of a significant upregulation of cyclin D1 in Ewing's sarcoma as compared to normal tissues. In addition, we confirmed our previous findings of a significant over-expression of cyclin D1 in Ewing sarcoma as compared to rhabdomyosarcoma. Bioinformatic analysis also allowed to identify some other genes, strongly correlated to cyclin D1, which, although not previously studied in pediatric tumors, could represent novel markers for the diagnosis and prognosis of Ewing's sarcoma/PNET. The data herein provided support not only the use of cyclin D1 as a diagnostic marker of Ewing sarcoma/PNET but also the possibility of using drugs targeting cyclin D1 as potential therapeutic strategies. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.

  10. Phase-Contrast Hounsfield Units of Fixated and Non-Fixated Soft-Tissue Samples

    Science.gov (United States)

    Willner, Marian; Fior, Gabriel; Marschner, Mathias; Birnbacher, Lorenz; Schock, Jonathan; Braun, Christian; Fingerle, Alexander A.; Noël, Peter B.; Rummeny, Ernst J.; Pfeiffer, Franz; Herzen, Julia

    2015-01-01

    X-ray phase-contrast imaging is a novel technology that achieves high soft-tissue contrast. Although its clinical impact is still under investigation, the technique may potentially improve clinical diagnostics. In conventional attenuation-based X-ray computed tomography, radiological diagnostics are quantified by Hounsfield units. Corresponding Hounsfield units for phase-contrast imaging have been recently introduced, enabling a setup-independent comparison and standardized interpretation of imaging results. Thus far, the experimental values of few tissue types have been reported; these values have been determined from fixated tissue samples. This study presents phase-contrast Hounsfield units for various types of non-fixated human soft tissues. A large variety of tissue specimens ranging from adipose, muscle and connective tissues to liver, kidney and pancreas tissues were imaged by a grating interferometer with a rotating-anode X-ray tube and a photon-counting detector. Furthermore, we investigated the effects of formalin fixation on the quantitative phase-contrast imaging results. PMID:26322638

  11. A comparative analysis of DNA barcode microarray feature size

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Smith Andrew M

    2009-10-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Microarrays are an invaluable tool in many modern genomic studies. It is generally perceived that decreasing the size of microarray features leads to arrays with higher resolution (due to greater feature density, but this increase in resolution can compromise sensitivity. Results We demonstrate that barcode microarrays with smaller features are equally capable of detecting variation in DNA barcode intensity when compared to larger feature sizes within a specific microarray platform. The barcodes used in this study are the well-characterized set derived from the Yeast KnockOut (YKO collection used for screens of pooled yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae deletion mutants. We treated these pools with the glycosylation inhibitor tunicamycin as a test compound. Three generations of barcode microarrays at 30, 8 and 5 μm features sizes independently identified the primary target of tunicamycin to be ALG7. Conclusion We show that the data obtained with 5 μm feature size is of comparable quality to the 30 μm size and propose that further shrinking of features could yield barcode microarrays with equal or greater resolving power and, more importantly, higher density.

  12. Molecular characterisation of the early response in pigs to experimental infection with Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae using cDNA microarrays

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hedegaard, Jakob; Skovgaard, Kerstin; Mortensen, Shila

    2007-01-01

    Background: The bacterium Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae is responsible for porcine pleuropneumonia, a widespread, highly contagious and often fatal respiratory disease of pigs. The general porcine innate immune response after A. pleuropneumoniae infection is still not clarified. The objective...... lymph node tissue were hybridised to an expanded version of the porcine microarray with 26879 unique PCR products. Results: A total of 357 genes differed significantly in expression between infected and non-infected lung tissue, 713 genes differed in expression in liver tissue from infected versus non-infected...... animals and 130 genes differed in expression in tracheobronchial lymph node tissue from infected versus non-infected animals. Among these genes, several have previously been described to be part of a general host response to infections encoding immune response related proteins. In inflamed lung tissue...

  13. Systematic bias in genomic classification due to contaminating non-neoplastic tissue in breast tumor samples.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Elloumi, Fathi; Hu, Zhiyuan; Li, Yan; Parker, Joel S; Gulley, Margaret L; Amos, Keith D; Troester, Melissa A

    2011-06-30

    Genomic tests are available to predict breast cancer recurrence and to guide clinical decision making. These predictors provide recurrence risk scores along with a measure of uncertainty, usually a confidence interval. The confidence interval conveys random error and not systematic bias. Standard tumor sampling methods make this problematic, as it is common to have a substantial proportion (typically 30-50%) of a tumor sample comprised of histologically benign tissue. This "normal" tissue could represent a source of non-random error or systematic bias in genomic classification. To assess the performance characteristics of genomic classification to systematic error from normal contamination, we collected 55 tumor samples and paired tumor-adjacent normal tissue. Using genomic signatures from the tumor and paired normal, we evaluated how increasing normal contamination altered recurrence risk scores for various genomic predictors. Simulations of normal tissue contamination caused misclassification of tumors in all predictors evaluated, but different breast cancer predictors showed different types of vulnerability to normal tissue bias. While two predictors had unpredictable direction of bias (either higher or lower risk of relapse resulted from normal contamination), one signature showed predictable direction of normal tissue effects. Due to this predictable direction of effect, this signature (the PAM50) was adjusted for normal tissue contamination and these corrections improved sensitivity and negative predictive value. For all three assays quality control standards and/or appropriate bias adjustment strategies can be used to improve assay reliability. Normal tissue sampled concurrently with tumor is an important source of bias in breast genomic predictors. All genomic predictors show some sensitivity to normal tissue contamination and ideal strategies for mitigating this bias vary depending upon the particular genes and computational methods used in the predictor.

  14. Detection of Flavobacterium psychrophilum from fish tissue and water samples by PCR amplification

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Wiklund, T.; Madsen, Lone; Bruun, Morten Sichlau

    2000-01-01

    investigation, the possible detection of Fl. psychrophilum from fish tissue and water samples was examined using nested PCR with DNA probes against a sequence of the 16S rRNA genes. The DNA was extracted using Chelex(R) 100 chelating resin. The primers, which were tested against strains isolated from diseased...... fish, healthy fish, fish farm environments and reference strains, proved to be specific for Fl. psychrophilum. The obtained detection limit of Fl. psychrophilum seeded into rainbow trout brain tissue was 0.4 cfu in the PCR tube, corresponding to 17 cfu mg(-1) brain tissue. The PCR-assay proved...... to be more sensitive than agar cultivation of tissue samples from the brain of rainbow trout injected with Fl. psychrophilum. In non-sterile fresh water seeded with Fl. psychrophilum the detection limit of the PCR- assay was 1.7 cfu in the PCR tube, corresponding to 110 cfu ml(-1) water. The PCR...

  15. Simultaneous sampling of tissue oxygenation and oxygen consumption in skeletal muscle.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nugent, William H; Song, Bjorn K; Pittman, Roland N; Golub, Aleksander S

    2016-05-01

    Under physiologic conditions, microvascular oxygen delivery appears to be well matched to oxygen consumption in respiring tissues. We present a technique to measure interstitial oxygen tension (PISFO2) and oxygen consumption (VO2) under steady-state conditions, as well as during the transitions from rest to activity and back. Phosphorescence Quenching Microscopy (PQM) was employed with pneumatic compression cycling to achieve 1 to 10 Hz sampling rates of interstitial PO2 and simultaneous recurrent sampling of VO2 (3/min) in the exteriorized rat spinotrapezius muscle. The compression pressure was optimized to 120-130 mmHg without adverse effect on the tissue preparation. A cycle of 5s compression followed by 15s recovery yielded a resting VO2 of 0.98 ± 0.03 ml O2/100 cm(3)min while preserving microvascular oxygen delivery. The measurement system was then used to assess VO2 dependence on PISFO2 at rest and further tested under conditions of isometric muscle contraction to demonstrate a robust ability to monitor the on-kinetics of tissue respiration and the compensatory changes in PISFO2 during contraction and recovery. The temporal and spatial resolution of this approach is well suited to studies seeking to characterize microvascular oxygen supply and demand in thin tissues. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  16. Microarray-based screening of heat shock protein inhibitors.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schax, Emilia; Walter, Johanna-Gabriela; Märzhäuser, Helene; Stahl, Frank; Scheper, Thomas; Agard, David A; Eichner, Simone; Kirschning, Andreas; Zeilinger, Carsten

    2014-06-20

    Based on the importance of heat shock proteins (HSPs) in diseases such as cancer, Alzheimer's disease or malaria, inhibitors of these chaperons are needed. Today's state-of-the-art techniques to identify HSP inhibitors are performed in microplate format, requiring large amounts of proteins and potential inhibitors. In contrast, we have developed a miniaturized protein microarray-based assay to identify novel inhibitors, allowing analysis with 300 pmol of protein. The assay is based on competitive binding of fluorescence-labeled ATP and potential inhibitors to the ATP-binding site of HSP. Therefore, the developed microarray enables the parallel analysis of different ATP-binding proteins on a single microarray. We have demonstrated the possibility of multiplexing by immobilizing full-length human HSP90α and HtpG of Helicobacter pylori on microarrays. Fluorescence-labeled ATP was competed by novel geldanamycin/reblastatin derivatives with IC50 values in the range of 0.5 nM to 4 μM and Z(*)-factors between 0.60 and 0.96. Our results demonstrate the potential of a target-oriented multiplexed protein microarray to identify novel inhibitors for different members of the HSP90 family. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  17. The Porcelain Crab Transcriptome and PCAD, the Porcelain Crab Microarray and Sequence Database

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Tagmount, Abderrahmane; Wang, Mei; Lindquist, Erika; Tanaka, Yoshihiro; Teranishi, Kristen S.; Sunagawa, Shinichi; Wong, Mike; Stillman, Jonathon H.

    2010-01-27

    Background: With the emergence of a completed genome sequence of the freshwater crustacean Daphnia pulex, construction of genomic-scale sequence databases for additional crustacean sequences are important for comparative genomics and annotation. Porcelain crabs, genus Petrolisthes, have been powerful crustacean models for environmental and evolutionary physiology with respect to thermal adaptation and understanding responses of marine organisms to climate change. Here, we present a large-scale EST sequencing and cDNA microarray database project for the porcelain crab Petrolisthes cinctipes. Methodology/Principal Findings: A set of ~;;30K unique sequences (UniSeqs) representing ~;;19K clusters were generated from ~;;98K high quality ESTs from a set of tissue specific non-normalized and mixed-tissue normalized cDNA libraries from the porcelain crab Petrolisthes cinctipes. Homology for each UniSeq was assessed using BLAST, InterProScan, GO and KEGG database searches. Approximately 66percent of the UniSeqs had homology in at least one of the databases. All EST and UniSeq sequences along with annotation results and coordinated cDNA microarray datasets have been made publicly accessible at the Porcelain Crab Array Database (PCAD), a feature-enriched version of the Stanford and Longhorn Array Databases.Conclusions/Significance: The EST project presented here represents the third largest sequencing effort for any crustacean, and the largest effort for any crab species. Our assembly and clustering results suggest that our porcelain crab EST data set is equally diverse to the much larger EST set generated in the Daphnia pulex genome sequencing project, and thus will be an important resource to the Daphnia research community. Our homology results support the pancrustacea hypothesis and suggest that Malacostraca may be ancestral to Branchiopoda and Hexapoda. Our results also suggest that our cDNA microarrays cover as much of the transcriptome as can reasonably be captured in

  18. Identification of a novel uromodulin-like gene related to predator-induced bulgy morph in anuran tadpoles by functional microarray analysis.

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    Tsukasa Mori

    2009-06-01

    Full Text Available Tadpoles of the anuran species Rana pirica can undergo predator-specific morphological responses. Exposure to a predation threat by larvae of the salamander Hynobius retardatus results in formation of a bulgy body (bulgy morph with a higher tail. The tadpoles revert to a normal phenotype upon removal of the larval salamander threat. Although predator-induced phenotypic plasticity is of major interest to evolutionary ecologists, the molecular and physiological mechanisms that control this response have yet to be elucidated. In a previous study, we identified various genes that are expressed in the skin of the bulgy morph. However, it proved difficult to determine which of these were key genes in the control of gene expression associated with the bulgy phenotype. Here, we show that a novel gene plays an important role in the phenotypic plasticity producing the bulgy morph. A functional microarray analysis using facial tissue samples of control and bulgy morph tadpoles identified candidate functional genes for predator-specific morphological responses. A larger functional microarray was prepared than in the previous study and used to analyze mRNAs extracted from facial and brain tissues of tadpoles from induction-reversion experiments. We found that a novel uromodulin-like gene, which we name here pirica, was up-regulated and that keratin genes were down-regulated as the period of exposure to larval salamanders increased. Pirica consists of a 1296 bp open reading frame, which is putatively translated into a protein of 432 amino acids. The protein contains a zona pellucida domain similar to that of proteins that function to control water permeability. We found that the gene was expressed in the superficial epidermis of the tadpole skin.

  19. GTI: a novel algorithm for identifying outlier gene expression profiles from integrated microarray datasets.

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    John Patrick Mpindi

    Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Meta-analysis of gene expression microarray datasets presents significant challenges for statistical analysis. We developed and validated a new bioinformatic method for the identification of genes upregulated in subsets of samples of a given tumour type ('outlier genes', a hallmark of potential oncogenes. METHODOLOGY: A new statistical method (the gene tissue index, GTI was developed by modifying and adapting algorithms originally developed for statistical problems in economics. We compared the potential of the GTI to detect outlier genes in meta-datasets with four previously defined statistical methods, COPA, the OS statistic, the t-test and ORT, using simulated data. We demonstrated that the GTI performed equally well to existing methods in a single study simulation. Next, we evaluated the performance of the GTI in the analysis of combined Affymetrix gene expression data from several published studies covering 392 normal samples of tissue from the central nervous system, 74 astrocytomas, and 353 glioblastomas. According to the results, the GTI was better able than most of the previous methods to identify known oncogenic outlier genes. In addition, the GTI identified 29 novel outlier genes in glioblastomas, including TYMS and CDKN2A. The over-expression of these genes was validated in vivo by immunohistochemical staining data from clinical glioblastoma samples. Immunohistochemical data were available for 65% (19 of 29 of these genes, and 17 of these 19 genes (90% showed a typical outlier staining pattern. Furthermore, raltitrexed, a specific inhibitor of TYMS used in the therapy of tumour types other than glioblastoma, also effectively blocked cell proliferation in glioblastoma cell lines, thus highlighting this outlier gene candidate as a potential therapeutic target. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Taken together, these results support the GTI as a novel approach to identify potential oncogene outliers and drug targets. The algorithm is

  20. Altered metabolism of growth hormone receptor mutant mice: a combined NMR metabonomics and microarray study.

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    Horst Joachim Schirra

    Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Growth hormone is an important regulator of post-natal growth and metabolism. We have investigated the metabolic consequences of altered growth hormone signalling in mutant mice that have truncations at position 569 and 391 of the intracellular domain of the growth hormone receptor, and thus exhibit either low (around 30% maximum or no growth hormone-dependent STAT5 signalling respectively. These mutations result in altered liver metabolism, obesity and insulin resistance. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: The analysis of metabolic changes was performed using microarray analysis of liver tissue and NMR metabonomics of urine and liver tissue. Data were analyzed using multivariate statistics and Gene Ontology tools. The metabolic profiles characteristic for each of the two mutant groups and wild-type mice were identified with NMR metabonomics. We found decreased urinary levels of taurine, citrate and 2-oxoglutarate, and increased levels of trimethylamine, creatine and creatinine when compared to wild-type mice. These results indicate significant changes in lipid and choline metabolism, and were coupled with increased fat deposition, leading to obesity. The microarray analysis identified changes in expression of metabolic enzymes correlating with alterations in metabolite concentration both in urine and liver. Similarity of mutant 569 to the wild-type was seen in young mice, but the pattern of metabolites shifted to that of the 391 mutant as the 569 mice became obese after six months age. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: The metabonomic observations were consistent with the parallel analysis of gene expression and pathway mapping using microarray data, identifying metabolites and gene transcripts involved in hepatic metabolism, especially for taurine, choline and creatinine metabolism. The systems biology approach applied in this study provides a coherent picture of metabolic changes resulting from impaired STAT5 signalling by the growth hormone

  1. Novel markers for differentiation of lobular and ductal invasive breast carcinomas by laser microdissection and microarray analysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Turashvili, Gulisa; Srovnal, Josef; Hajduch, Marian; Murray, Paul; Kolar, Zdenek; Bouchal, Jan; Baumforth, Karl; Wei, Wenbin; Dziechciarkova, Marta; Ehrmann, Jiri; Klein, Jiri; Fridman, Eduard; Skarda, Jozef

    2007-01-01

    Invasive ductal and lobular carcinomas (IDC and ILC) are the most common histological types of breast cancer. Clinical follow-up data and metastatic patterns suggest that the development and progression of these tumors are different. The aim of our study was to identify gene expression profiles of IDC and ILC in relation to normal breast epithelial cells. We examined 30 samples (normal ductal and lobular cells from 10 patients, IDC cells from 5 patients, ILC cells from 5 patients) microdissected from cryosections of ten mastectomy specimens from postmenopausal patients. Fifty nanograms of total RNA were amplified and labeled by PCR and in vitro transcription. Samples were analysed upon Affymetrix U133 Plus 2.0 Arrays. The expression of seven differentially expressed genes (CDH1, EMP1, DDR1, DVL1, KRT5, KRT6, KRT17) was verified by immunohistochemistry on tissue microarrays. Expression of ASPN mRNA was validated by in situ hybridization on frozen sections, and CTHRC1, ASPN and COL3A1 were tested by PCR. Using GCOS pairwise comparison algorithm and rank products we have identified 84 named genes common to ILC versus normal cell types, 74 named genes common to IDC versus normal cell types, 78 named genes differentially expressed between normal ductal and lobular cells, and 28 named genes between IDC and ILC. Genes distinguishing between IDC and ILC are involved in epithelial-mesenchymal transition, TGF-beta and Wnt signaling. These changes were present in both tumor types but appeared to be more prominent in ILC. Immunohistochemistry for several novel markers (EMP1, DVL1, DDR1) distinguished large sets of IDC from ILC. IDC and ILC can be differentiated both at the gene and protein levels. In this study we report two candidate genes, asporin (ASPN) and collagen triple helix repeat containing 1 (CTHRC1) which might be significant in breast carcinogenesis. Besides E-cadherin, the proteins validated on tissue microarrays (EMP1, DVL1, DDR1) may represent novel

  2. Spot detection and image segmentation in DNA microarray data.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Qin, Li; Rueda, Luis; Ali, Adnan; Ngom, Alioune

    2005-01-01

    Following the invention of microarrays in 1994, the development and applications of this technology have grown exponentially. The numerous applications of microarray technology include clinical diagnosis and treatment, drug design and discovery, tumour detection, and environmental health research. One of the key issues in the experimental approaches utilising microarrays is to extract quantitative information from the spots, which represent genes in a given experiment. For this process, the initial stages are important and they influence future steps in the analysis. Identifying the spots and separating the background from the foreground is a fundamental problem in DNA microarray data analysis. In this review, we present an overview of state-of-the-art methods for microarray image segmentation. We discuss the foundations of the circle-shaped approach, adaptive shape segmentation, histogram-based methods and the recently introduced clustering-based techniques. We analytically show that clustering-based techniques are equivalent to the one-dimensional, standard k-means clustering algorithm that utilises the Euclidean distance.

  3. Implementation of mutual information and bayes theorem for classification microarray data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dwifebri Purbolaksono, Mahendra; Widiastuti, Kurnia C.; Syahrul Mubarok, Mohamad; Adiwijaya; Aminy Ma’ruf, Firda

    2018-03-01

    Microarray Technology is one of technology which able to read the structure of gen. The analysis is important for this technology. It is for deciding which attribute is more important than the others. Microarray technology is able to get cancer information to diagnose a person’s gen. Preparation of microarray data is a huge problem and takes a long time. That is because microarray data contains high number of insignificant and irrelevant attributes. So, it needs a method to reduce the dimension of microarray data without eliminating important information in every attribute. This research uses Mutual Information to reduce dimension. System is built with Machine Learning approach specifically Bayes Theorem. This theorem uses a statistical and probability approach. By combining both methods, it will be powerful for Microarray Data Classification. The experiment results show that system is good to classify Microarray data with highest F1-score using Bayesian Network by 91.06%, and Naïve Bayes by 88.85%.

  4. Typeability of PowerPlex Y (Promega) profiles in selected tissue samples incubated in various environments.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Niemcunowicz-Janica, Anna; Pepiński, Witold; Janica, Jacek Robert; Janica, Jerzy; Skawrońska, Małgorzata; Koc-Zórawska, Ewa

    2007-01-01

    In cases of decomposed bodies, Y chromosomal STR markers may be useful in identification of a male relative. The authors assessed typeability of PowerPlex Y (Promega) loci in post mortem tissue material stored in various environments. Kidney, spleen and pancreas specimens were collected during autopsies of five persons aged 20-30 years, whose time of death was determined within the limit of 14 hours. Tissue material was incubated at 21 degrees C and 4 degrees C in various environmental conditions. DNA was extracted by the organic method from tissue samples collected in 7-day intervals and subsequently typed using the PowerPlexY-STR kit and ABI 310. A fast decrease in the typeability rate was seen in specimens incubated in peat soil and in sand. Kidney tissue samples were typeable in all PowerPlexY-STR loci within 63 days of incubation at 4 degrees C. Faster DNA degradation was recorded in spleen and pancreas specimens. In samples with negative genotyping results, no DNA was found by fluorometric quantitation. Decomposed soft tissues are a potential material for DNA typing.

  5. Multi-gene detection and identification of mosquito-borne RNA viruses using an oligonucleotide microarray.

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    Nathan D Grubaugh

    Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Arthropod-borne viruses are important emerging pathogens world-wide. Viruses transmitted by mosquitoes, such as dengue, yellow fever, and Japanese encephalitis viruses, infect hundreds of millions of people and animals each year. Global surveillance of these viruses in mosquito vectors using molecular based assays is critical for prevention and control of the associated diseases. Here, we report an oligonucleotide DNA microarray design, termed ArboChip5.1, for multi-gene detection and identification of mosquito-borne RNA viruses from the genera Flavivirus (family Flaviviridae, Alphavirus (Togaviridae, Orthobunyavirus (Bunyaviridae, and Phlebovirus (Bunyaviridae. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: The assay utilizes targeted PCR amplification of three genes from each virus genus for electrochemical detection on a portable, field-tested microarray platform. Fifty-two viruses propagated in cell-culture were used to evaluate the specificity of the PCR primer sets and the ArboChip5.1 microarray capture probes. The microarray detected all of the tested viruses and differentiated between many closely related viruses such as members of the dengue, Japanese encephalitis, and Semliki Forest virus clades. Laboratory infected mosquitoes were used to simulate field samples and to determine the limits of detection. Additionally, we identified dengue virus type 3, Japanese encephalitis virus, Tembusu virus, Culex flavivirus, and a Quang Binh-like virus from mosquitoes collected in Thailand in 2011 and 2012. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: We demonstrated that the described assay can be utilized in a comprehensive field surveillance program by the broad-range amplification and specific identification of arboviruses from infected mosquitoes. Furthermore, the microarray platform can be deployed in the field and viral RNA extraction to data analysis can occur in as little as 12 h. The information derived from the ArboChip5.1 microarray can help to establish

  6. Biobanking of fresh frozen tissue from clinical surgical specimens: transport logistics, sample selection, and histologic characterization.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Botling, Johan; Micke, Patrick

    2011-01-01

    Access to high-quality fresh frozen tissue is critical for translational cancer research and molecular -diagnostics. Here we describe a workflow for the collection of frozen solid tissue samples derived from fresh human patient specimens after surgery. The routines have been in operation at Uppsala University Hospital since 2001. We have integrated cryosection and histopathologic examination of each biobank sample into the biobank manual. In this way, even small, macroscopically ill-defined lesions can be -procured without a diagnostic hazard due to the removal of uncharacterized tissue from a clinical -specimen. Also, knowledge of the histomorphology of the frozen tissue sample - tumor cell content, stromal components, and presence of necrosis - is pivotal before entering a biobank case into costly molecular profiling studies.

  7. Microarray-based DNA methylation study of Ewing's sarcoma of the bone.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Park, Hye-Rim; Jung, Woon-Won; Kim, Hyun-Sook; Park, Yong-Koo

    2014-10-01

    Alterations in DNA methylation patterns are a hallmark of malignancy. However, the majority of epigenetic studies of Ewing's sarcoma have focused on the analysis of only a few candidate genes. Comprehensive studies are thus lacking and are required. The aim of the present study was to identify novel methylation markers in Ewing's sarcoma using microarray analysis. The current study reports the microarray-based DNA methylation study of 1,505 CpG sites of 807 cancer-related genes from 69 Ewing's sarcoma samples. The Illumina GoldenGate Methylation Cancer Panel I microarray was used, and with the appropriate controls (n=14), a total of 92 hypermethylated genes were identified in the Ewing's sarcoma samples. The majority of the hypermethylated genes were associated with cell adhesion, cell regulation, development and signal transduction. The overall methylation mean values were compared between patients who survived and those that did not. The overall methylation mean was significantly higher in the patients who did not survive (0.25±0.03) than in those who did (0.22±0.05) (P=0.0322). However, the overall methylation mean was not found to significantly correlate with age, gender or tumor location. GDF10 , OSM , APC and HOXA11 were the most significant differentially-methylated genes, however, their methylation levels were not found to significantly correlate with the survival rate. The DNA methylation profile of Ewing's sarcoma was characterized and 92 genes that were significantly hypermethylated were detected. A trend towards a more aggressive behavior was identified in the methylated group. The results of this study indicated that methylation may be significant in the development of Ewing's sarcoma.

  8. PIIKA 2: an expanded, web-based platform for analysis of kinome microarray data.

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    Brett Trost

    Full Text Available Kinome microarrays are comprised of peptides that act as phosphorylation targets for protein kinases. This platform is growing in popularity due to its ability to measure phosphorylation-mediated cellular signaling in a high-throughput manner. While software for analyzing data from DNA microarrays has also been used for kinome arrays, differences between the two technologies and associated biologies previously led us to develop Platform for Intelligent, Integrated Kinome Analysis (PIIKA, a software tool customized for the analysis of data from kinome arrays. Here, we report the development of PIIKA 2, a significantly improved version with new features and improvements in the areas of clustering, statistical analysis, and data visualization. Among other additions to the original PIIKA, PIIKA 2 now allows the user to: evaluate statistically how well groups of samples cluster together; identify sets of peptides that have consistent phosphorylation patterns among groups of samples; perform hierarchical clustering analysis with bootstrapping; view false negative probabilities and positive and negative predictive values for t-tests between pairs of samples; easily assess experimental reproducibility; and visualize the data using volcano plots, scatterplots, and interactive three-dimensional principal component analyses. Also new in PIIKA 2 is a web-based interface, which allows users unfamiliar with command-line tools to easily provide input and download the results. Collectively, the additions and improvements described here enhance both the breadth and depth of analyses available, simplify the user interface, and make the software an even more valuable tool for the analysis of kinome microarray data. Both the web-based and stand-alone versions of PIIKA 2 can be accessed via http://saphire.usask.ca.

  9. PIIKA 2: an expanded, web-based platform for analysis of kinome microarray data.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Trost, Brett; Kindrachuk, Jason; Määttänen, Pekka; Napper, Scott; Kusalik, Anthony

    2013-01-01

    Kinome microarrays are comprised of peptides that act as phosphorylation targets for protein kinases. This platform is growing in popularity due to its ability to measure phosphorylation-mediated cellular signaling in a high-throughput manner. While software for analyzing data from DNA microarrays has also been used for kinome arrays, differences between the two technologies and associated biologies previously led us to develop Platform for Intelligent, Integrated Kinome Analysis (PIIKA), a software tool customized for the analysis of data from kinome arrays. Here, we report the development of PIIKA 2, a significantly improved version with new features and improvements in the areas of clustering, statistical analysis, and data visualization. Among other additions to the original PIIKA, PIIKA 2 now allows the user to: evaluate statistically how well groups of samples cluster together; identify sets of peptides that have consistent phosphorylation patterns among groups of samples; perform hierarchical clustering analysis with bootstrapping; view false negative probabilities and positive and negative predictive values for t-tests between pairs of samples; easily assess experimental reproducibility; and visualize the data using volcano plots, scatterplots, and interactive three-dimensional principal component analyses. Also new in PIIKA 2 is a web-based interface, which allows users unfamiliar with command-line tools to easily provide input and download the results. Collectively, the additions and improvements described here enhance both the breadth and depth of analyses available, simplify the user interface, and make the software an even more valuable tool for the analysis of kinome microarray data. Both the web-based and stand-alone versions of PIIKA 2 can be accessed via http://saphire.usask.ca.

  10. Multimodal Raman-fluorescence spectroscopy of formalin fixed samples is able to discriminate brain tumors from dysplastic tissue

    Science.gov (United States)

    Anand, Suresh; Cicchi, Riccardo; Giordano, Flavio; Buccoliero, Anna Maria; Pavone, Francesco Saverio

    2014-05-01

    In the recent years, there has been a considerable surge in the application of spectroscopy for disease diagnosis. Raman and fluorescence spectra provide characteristic spectral profile related to biochemical and morphological changes when tissues progress from normal state towards malignancy. Spectroscopic techniques offer the advantage of being minimally invasive compared to traditional histopathology, real time and quantitative. In biomedical optical diagnostics, freshly excised specimens are preferred for making ex-vivo spectroscopic measurements. With regard to fresh tissues, if the lab is located far away from the clinic it could pose a problem as spectral measurements have to be performed immediately after dissection. Tissue samples are usually placed in a fixative agent such as 4% formaldehyde to preserve the samples before processing them for routine histopathological studies. Fixation prevents the tissues from decomposition by arresting autolysis. In the present study, we intend to investigate the possibility of using formalin fixed samples for discrimination of brain tumours from dysplastic tissue using Raman and fluorescence spectroscopy. Formalin fixed samples were washed with phosphate buffered saline for about 5 minutes in order to remove the effects of formalin during spectroscopic measurements. In case of fluorescence spectroscopy, changes in spectral profile have been observed in the region between 550-670 nm between dysplastic and tumor samples. For Raman measurements, we found significant differences in the spectral profiles between dysplasia and tumor. In conclusion, formalin fixed samples can be potentially used for the spectroscopic discrimination of tumor against dysplastic tissue in brain samples.

  11. Uso de microarrays na busca de perfis de expressão gênica: aplicação no estudo de fenótipos complexos Use of microarrays in the search of gene expression patterns: application to the study of complex phenotypes

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Camila Guindalini

    2007-12-01

    . By the simultaneous determination of the expression levels of thousands of genes, microarrays allow researchers to compare the molecular behaviour of different types of cells lines or specific tissues that have been exposed to pathological or experimental conditions. The method may provide insights into physiological processes and facilitate the identification of novel biological markers for diagnostic, prognostic and pharmacological treatments for a number of diseases. In this article, we present theoretical and methodological concepts underlying the microarray technology, as well as an overview of its advantages, perspectives and future scientific directions. In an attempt to demonstrate the applicability and efficiency of the method in the study of complex phenotypes, initial results on gene expression studies in post mortem brain samples of psychiatric patients and on the molecular and functional consequences of sleep disturbances, which is strongly associated with psychiatric illness, will be described and discussed.

  12. Calling Biomarkers in Milk Using a Protein Microarray on Your Smartphone

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ludwig, Susann K. J.; Tokarski, Christian; Lang, Stefan N.; van Ginkel, Leendert A.; Zhu, Hongying; Ozcan, Aydogan; Nielen, Michel W. F.

    2015-01-01

    Here we present the concept of a protein microarray-based fluorescence immunoassay for multiple biomarker detection in milk extracts by an ordinary smartphone. A multiplex immunoassay was designed on a microarray chip, having built-in positive and negative quality controls. After the immunoassay procedure, the 48 microspots were labelled with Quantum Dots (QD) depending on the protein biomarker levels in the sample. QD-fluorescence was subsequently detected by the smartphone camera under UV light excitation from LEDs embedded in a simple 3D-printed opto-mechanical smartphone attachment. The somewhat aberrant images obtained under such conditions, were corrected by newly developed Android-based software on the same smartphone, and protein biomarker profiles were calculated. The indirect detection of recombinant bovine somatotropin (rbST) in milk extracts based on altered biomarker profile of anti-rbST antibodies was selected as a real-life challenge. RbST-treated and untreated cows clearly showed reproducible treatment-dependent biomarker profiles in milk, in excellent agreement with results from a flow cytometer reference method. In a pilot experiment, anti-rbST antibody detection was multiplexed with the detection of another rbST-dependent biomarker, insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1). Milk extract IGF-1 levels were found to be increased after rbST treatment and correlated with the results obtained from the reference method. These data clearly demonstrate the potential of the portable protein microarray concept towards simultaneous detection of multiple biomarkers. We envisage broad application of this ‘protein microarray on a smartphone’-concept for on-site testing, e.g., in food safety, environment and health monitoring. PMID:26308444

  13. Calling Biomarkers in Milk Using a Protein Microarray on Your Smartphone.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Susann K J Ludwig

    Full Text Available Here we present the concept of a protein microarray-based fluorescence immunoassay for multiple biomarker detection in milk extracts by an ordinary smartphone. A multiplex immunoassay was designed on a microarray chip, having built-in positive and negative quality controls. After the immunoassay procedure, the 48 microspots were labelled with Quantum Dots (QD depending on the protein biomarker levels in the sample. QD-fluorescence was subsequently detected by the smartphone camera under UV light excitation from LEDs embedded in a simple 3D-printed opto-mechanical smartphone attachment. The somewhat aberrant images obtained under such conditions, were corrected by newly developed Android-based software on the same smartphone, and protein biomarker profiles were calculated. The indirect detection of recombinant bovine somatotropin (rbST in milk extracts based on altered biomarker profile of anti-rbST antibodies was selected as a real-life challenge. RbST-treated and untreated cows clearly showed reproducible treatment-dependent biomarker profiles in milk, in excellent agreement with results from a flow cytometer reference method. In a pilot experiment, anti-rbST antibody detection was multiplexed with the detection of another rbST-dependent biomarker, insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1. Milk extract IGF-1 levels were found to be increased after rbST treatment and correlated with the results obtained from the reference method. These data clearly demonstrate the potential of the portable protein microarray concept towards simultaneous detection of multiple biomarkers. We envisage broad application of this 'protein microarray on a smartphone'-concept for on-site testing, e.g., in food safety, environment and health monitoring.

  14. Impact Of Tissue Sampling On Accuracy Of Ki67 Immunohistochemistry Evaluation In Breast Cancer

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    Justinas Besusparis

    2016-06-01

    The sampling requirements were dependent on the heterogeneity of the biomarker expression. To achieve a coefficient error of 10%, 5-6 cores were needed for homogeneous cases, while 11-12 cores for heterogeneous cases. In mixed tumor population, 8 TMA cores were required. Similarly, to achieve the same accuracy, approximately 4,000 nuclei must be counted when the intra-tumor heterogeneity is mixed/unknown. Tumors at the lower scale of proliferative activity would require larger sampling (10-12 TMA cores, or 5,000 nuclei to achieve the same error measurement results as for highly proliferative tumors. Our data show that optimal tissue sampling for IHC biomarker evaluation is dependent on the heterogeneity of the tissue under study and needs to be determined on a per-use basis. We propose a method that can be applied to determine the TMA sampling strategy for specific biomarkers, tissues and study targets. In addition, our findings highlight the importance of high-capacity computer-based IHC measurement techniques to improve accuracy of the testing.

  15. Identification of multiple mRNA and DNA sequences from small tissue samples isolated by laser-assisted microdissection.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bernsen, M R; Dijkman, H B; de Vries, E; Figdor, C G; Ruiter, D J; Adema, G J; van Muijen, G N

    1998-10-01

    Molecular analysis of small tissue samples has become increasingly important in biomedical studies. Using a laser dissection microscope and modified nucleic acid isolation protocols, we demonstrate that multiple mRNA as well as DNA sequences can be identified from a single-cell sample. In addition, we show that the specificity of procurement of tissue samples is not compromised by smear contamination resulting from scraping of the microtome knife during sectioning of lesions. The procedures described herein thus allow for efficient RT-PCR or PCR analysis of multiple nucleic acid sequences from small tissue samples obtained by laser-assisted microdissection.

  16. High-resolution, 2- and 3-dimensional imaging of uncut, unembedded tissue biopsy samples.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Torres, Richard; Vesuna, Sam; Levene, Michael J

    2014-03-01

    Despite continuing advances in tissue processing automation, traditional embedding, cutting, and staining methods limit our ability for rapid, comprehensive visual examination. These limitations are particularly relevant to biopsies for which immediate therapeutic decisions are most necessary, faster feedback to the patient is desired, and preservation of tissue for ancillary studies is most important. The recent development of improved tissue clearing techniques has made it possible to consider use of multiphoton microscopy (MPM) tools in clinical settings, which could address difficulties of established methods. To demonstrate the potential of MPM of cleared tissue for the evaluation of unembedded and uncut pathology samples. Human prostate, liver, breast, and kidney specimens were fixed and dehydrated by using traditional histologic techniques, with or without incorporation of nucleic acid fluorescent stains into dehydration steps. A benzyl alcohol/benzyl benzoate clearing protocol was substituted for xylene. Multiphoton microscopy was performed on a home-built system. Excellent morphologic detail was achievable with MPM at depths greater than 500 μm. Pseudocoloring produced images analogous to hematoxylin-eosin-stained images. Concurrent second-harmonic generation detection allowed mapping of collagen. Subsequent traditional section staining with hematoxylin-eosin did not reveal any detrimental morphologic effects. Sample immunostains on renal tissue showed preservation of normal reactivity. Complete reconstructions of 1-mm cubic samples elucidated 3-dimensional architectural organization. Multiphoton microscopy on cleared, unembedded, uncut biopsy specimens shows potential as a practical clinical tool with significant advantages over traditional histology while maintaining compatibility with gold standard techniques. Further investigation to address remaining implementation barriers is warranted.

  17. The Immunome of Colon Cancer: Functional In Silico Analysis of Antigenic Proteins Deduced from IgG Microarray Profiling

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    Johana A. Luna Coronell

    2018-02-01

    Full Text Available Characterization of the colon cancer immunome and its autoantibody signature from differentially-reactive antigens (DIRAGs could provide insights into aberrant cellular mechanisms or enriched networks associated with diseases. The purpose of this study was to characterize the antibody profile of plasma samples from 32 colorectal cancer (CRC patients and 32 controls using proteins isolated from 15,417 human cDNA expression clones on microarrays. 671 unique DIRAGs were identified and 632 were more highly reactive in CRC samples. Bioinformatics analyses reveal that compared to control samples, the immunoproteomic IgG profiling of CRC samples is mainly associated with cell death, survival, and proliferation pathways, especially proteins involved in EIF2 and mTOR signaling. Ribosomal proteins (e.g., RPL7, RPL22, and RPL27A and CRC-related genes such as APC, AXIN1, E2F4, MSH2, PMS2, and TP53 were highly enriched. In addition, differential pathways were observed between the CRC and control samples. Furthermore, 103 DIRAGs were reported in the SEREX antigen database, demonstrating our ability to identify known and new reactive antigens. We also found an overlap of 7 antigens with 48 “CRC genes.” These data indicate that immunomics profiling on protein microarrays is able to reveal the complexity of immune responses in cancerous diseases and faithfully reflects the underlying pathology. Keywords: Autoantibody tumor biomarker, Cancer immunology, Colorectal cancer, Immunomics, Protein microarray

  18. Prevalence, identification by a DNA microarray-based assay of human and food isolates Listeria spp. from Tunisia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hmaïed, F; Helel, S; Le Berre, V; François, J-M; Leclercq, A; Lecuit, M; Smaoui, H; Kechrid, A; Boudabous, A; Barkallah, I

    2014-02-01

    We aimed at evaluating the prevalence of Listeria species isolated from food samples and characterizing food and human cases isolates. Between 2005 and 2007, one hundred food samples collected in the markets of Tunis were analysed in our study. Five strains of Listeria monocytogenes responsible for human listeriosis isolated in hospital of Tunis were included. Multiplex PCR serogrouping and pulsed field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) applying the enzyme AscI and ApaI were used for the characterization of isolates of L. monocytogenes. We have developed a rapid microarray-based assay to a reliable discrimination of species within the Listeria genus. The prevalence of Listeria spp. in food samples was estimated at 14% by using classical biochemical identification. Two samples were assigned to L. monocytogenes and 12 to L. innocua. DNA microarray allowed unambiguous identification of Listeria species. Our results obtained by microarray-based assay were in accordance with the biochemical identification. The two food L. monocytogenes isolates were assigned to the PCR serogroup IIa (serovar 1/2a). Whereas human L. monocytogenes isolates were of PCR serogroup IVb, (serovars 4b). These isolates present a high similarity in PFGE. Food L. monocytogenes isolates were classified into two different pulsotypes. These pulsotypes were different from that of the five strains responsible for the human cases. We confirmed the presence of Listeria spp. in variety of food samples in Tunis. Increased food and clinical surveillance must be taken into consideration in Tunisia to identify putative infections sources. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

  19. Advanced spot quality analysis in two-colour microarray experiments

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    Vetter Guillaume

    2008-09-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Image analysis of microarrays and, in particular, spot quantification and spot quality control, is one of the most important steps in statistical analysis of microarray data. Recent methods of spot quality control are still in early age of development, often leading to underestimation of true positive microarray features and, consequently, to loss of important biological information. Therefore, improving and standardizing the statistical approaches of spot quality control are essential to facilitate the overall analysis of microarray data and subsequent extraction of biological information. Findings We evaluated the performance of two image analysis packages MAIA and GenePix (GP using two complementary experimental approaches with a focus on the statistical analysis of spot quality factors. First, we developed control microarrays with a priori known fluorescence ratios to verify the accuracy and precision of the ratio estimation of signal intensities. Next, we developed advanced semi-automatic protocols of spot quality evaluation in MAIA and GP and compared their performance with available facilities of spot quantitative filtering in GP. We evaluated these algorithms for standardised spot quality analysis in a whole-genome microarray experiment assessing well-characterised transcriptional modifications induced by the transcription regulator SNAI1. Using a set of RT-PCR or qRT-PCR validated microarray data, we found that the semi-automatic protocol of spot quality control we developed with MAIA allowed recovering approximately 13% more spots and 38% more differentially expressed genes (at FDR = 5% than GP with default spot filtering conditions. Conclusion Careful control of spot quality characteristics with advanced spot quality evaluation can significantly increase the amount of confident and accurate data resulting in more meaningful biological conclusions.

  20. Analysis of Temporal-spatial Co-variation within Gene Expression Microarray Data in an Organogenesis Model

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ehler, Martin; Rajapakse, Vinodh; Zeeberg, Barry; Brooks, Brian; Brown, Jacob; Czaja, Wojciech; Bonner, Robert F.

    The gene networks underlying closure of the optic fissure during vertebrate eye development are poorly understood. We used a novel clustering method based on Laplacian Eigenmaps, a nonlinear dimension reduction method, to analyze microarray data from laser capture microdissected (LCM) cells at the site and developmental stages (days 10.5 to 12.5) of optic fissure closure. Our new method provided greater biological specificity than classical clustering algorithms in terms of identifying more biological processes and functions related to eye development as defined by Gene Ontology at lower false discovery rates. This new methodology builds on the advantages of LCM to isolate pure phenotypic populations within complex tissues and allows improved ability to identify critical gene products expressed at lower copy number. The combination of LCM of embryonic organs, gene expression microarrays, and extracting spatial and temporal co-variations appear to be a powerful approach to understanding the gene regulatory networks that specify mammalian organogenesis.

  1. Tissue-specific mRNA expression profiling in grape berry tissues

    Science.gov (United States)

    Grimplet, Jerome; Deluc, Laurent G; Tillett, Richard L; Wheatley, Matthew D; Schlauch, Karen A; Cramer, Grant R; Cushman, John C

    2007-01-01

    Background Berries of grape (Vitis vinifera) contain three major tissue types (skin, pulp and seed) all of which contribute to the aroma, color, and flavor characters of wine. The pericarp, which is composed of the exocarp (skin) and mesocarp (pulp), not only functions to protect and feed the developing seed, but also to assist in the dispersal of the mature seed by avian and mammalian vectors. The skin provides volatile and nonvolatile aroma and color compounds, the pulp contributes organic acids and sugars, and the seeds provide condensed tannins, all of which are important to the formation of organoleptic characteristics of wine. In order to understand the transcriptional network responsible for controlling tissue-specific mRNA expression patterns, mRNA expression profiling was conducted on each tissue of mature berries of V. vinifera Cabernet Sauvignon using the Affymetrix GeneChip® Vitis oligonucleotide microarray ver. 1.0. In order to monitor the influence of water-deficit stress on tissue-specific expression patterns, mRNA expression profiles were also compared from mature berries harvested from vines subjected to well-watered or water-deficit conditions. Results Overall, berry tissues were found to express approximately 76% of genes represented on the Vitis microarray. Approximately 60% of these genes exhibited significant differential expression in one or more of the three major tissue types with more than 28% of genes showing pronounced (2-fold or greater) differences in mRNA expression. The largest difference in tissue-specific expression was observed between the seed and pulp/skin. Exocarp tissue, which is involved in pathogen defense and pigment production, showed higher mRNA abundance relative to other berry tissues for genes involved with flavonoid biosynthesis, pathogen resistance, and cell wall modification. Mesocarp tissue, which is considered a nutritive tissue, exhibited a higher mRNA abundance of genes involved in cell wall function and

  2. Tissue-specific mRNA expression profiling in grape berry tissues

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    Cramer Grant R

    2007-06-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Berries of grape (Vitis vinifera contain three major tissue types (skin, pulp and seed all of which contribute to the aroma, color, and flavor characters of wine. The pericarp, which is composed of the exocarp (skin and mesocarp (pulp, not only functions to protect and feed the developing seed, but also to assist in the dispersal of the mature seed by avian and mammalian vectors. The skin provides volatile and nonvolatile aroma and color compounds, the pulp contributes organic acids and sugars, and the seeds provide condensed tannins, all of which are important to the formation of organoleptic characteristics of wine. In order to understand the transcriptional network responsible for controlling tissue-specific mRNA expression patterns, mRNA expression profiling was conducted on each tissue of mature berries of V. vinifera Cabernet Sauvignon using the Affymetrix GeneChip® Vitis oligonucleotide microarray ver. 1.0. In order to monitor the influence of water-deficit stress on tissue-specific expression patterns, mRNA expression profiles were also compared from mature berries harvested from vines subjected to well-watered or water-deficit conditions. Results Overall, berry tissues were found to express approximately 76% of genes represented on the Vitis microarray. Approximately 60% of these genes exhibited significant differential expression in one or more of the three major tissue types with more than 28% of genes showing pronounced (2-fold or greater differences in mRNA expression. The largest difference in tissue-specific expression was observed between the seed and pulp/skin. Exocarp tissue, which is involved in pathogen defense and pigment production, showed higher mRNA abundance relative to other berry tissues for genes involved with flavonoid biosynthesis, pathogen resistance, and cell wall modification. Mesocarp tissue, which is considered a nutritive tissue, exhibited a higher mRNA abundance of genes involved in cell

  3. Integration of paper-based microarray and time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) for parallel detection and quantification of molecules in multiple samples automatically.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chu, Kuo-Jui; Chen, Po-Chun; You, Yun-Wen; Chang, Hsun-Yun; Kao, Wei-Lun; Chu, Yi-Hsuan; Wu, Chen-Yi; Shyue, Jing-Jong

    2018-04-16

    With its low-cost fabrication and ease of modification, paper-based analytical devices have developed rapidly in recent years. Microarrays allow automatic analysis of multiple samples or multiple reactions with minimal sample consumption. While cellulose paper is generally used, its high backgrounds in spectrometry outside of the visible range has limited its application to be mostly colorimetric analysis. In this work, glass-microfiber paper is used as the substrate for a microarray. The glass-microfiber is essentially chemically inert SiO x , and the lower background from this inorganic microfiber can avoid interference from organic analytes in various spectrometers. However, generally used wax printing fails to wet glass microfibers to form hydrophobic barriers. Therefore, to prepare the hydrophobic-hydrophilic pattern, the glass-microfiber paper was first modified with an octadecyltrichlorosilane (OTS) self-assembled monolayer (SAM) to make the paper hydrophobic. A hydrophilic microarray was then prepared using a CO 2 laser scriber that selectively removed the OTS layer with a designed pattern. One microliter of aqueous drops of peptides at various concentrations were then dispensed inside the round patterns where OTS SAM was removed while the surrounding area with OTS layer served as a barrier to separate each drop. The resulting specimen of multiple spots was automatically analyzed with a time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometer (ToF-SIMS), and all of the secondary ions were collected. Among the various cluster ions that have developed over the past decade, pulsed C 60 + was selected as the primary ion because of its high secondary ion intensity in the high mass region, its minimal alteration of the surface when operating within the static-limit and spatial resolution at the ∼μm level. In the resulting spectra, parent ions of various peptides (in the forms [M+H] + and [M+Na] + ) were readily identified for parallel detection of molecules in a mixture

  4. An Overview of DNA Microarray Grid Alignment and Foreground Separation Approaches

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    Bajcsy Peter

    2006-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper overviews DNA microarray grid alignment and foreground separation approaches. Microarray grid alignment and foreground separation are the basic processing steps of DNA microarray images that affect the quality of gene expression information, and hence impact our confidence in any data-derived biological conclusions. Thus, understanding microarray data processing steps becomes critical for performing optimal microarray data analysis. In the past, the grid alignment and foreground separation steps have not been covered extensively in the survey literature. We present several classifications of existing algorithms, and describe the fundamental principles of these algorithms. Challenges related to automation and reliability of processed image data are outlined at the end of this overview paper.

  5. Connective tissue growth factor immunohistochemical expression is associated with gallbladder cancer progression.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Garcia, Patricia; Leal, Pamela; Alvarez, Hector; Brebi, Priscilla; Ili, Carmen; Tapia, Oscar; Roa, Juan C

    2013-02-01

    Gallbladder cancer (GBC) is an aggressive neoplasia associated with late diagnosis, unsatisfactory treatment, and poor prognosis. Molecular mechanisms involved in GBC pathogenesis remain poorly understood. Connective tissue growth factor (CTGF) is thought to play a role in the pathologic processes and is overexpressed in several human cancers, including GBC. No information is available about CTGF expression in early stages of gallbladder carcinogenesis. Objective.- To evaluate the expression level of CTGF in benign and malignant lesions of gallbladder and its correlation with clinicopathologic features and GBC prognosis. Connective tissue growth factor protein was examined by immunohistochemistry on tissue microarrays containing tissue samples of chronic cholecystitis (n = 51), dysplasia (n = 15), and GBC (n = 169). The samples were scored according to intensity of staining as low/absent and high CTGF expressers. Statistical analysis was performed using the χ(2) test or Fisher exact probability test with a significance level of P Connective tissue growth factor expression showed a progressive increase from chronic cholecystitis to dysplasia and then to early and advanced carcinoma. Immunohistochemical expression (score ≥2) was significantly higher in advanced tumors, in comparison with chronic cholecystitis (P < .001) and dysplasia (P = .03). High levels of CTGF expression correlated with better survival (P = .04). Our results suggest a role for CTGF in GBC progression and a positive association with better prognosis. In addition, they underscore the importance of considering the involvement of inflammation on GBC development.

  6. ArrayWiki: an enabling technology for sharing public microarray data repositories and meta-analyses

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stokes, Todd H; Torrance, JT; Li, Henry; Wang, May D

    2008-01-01

    Background A survey of microarray databases reveals that most of the repository contents and data models are heterogeneous (i.e., data obtained from different chip manufacturers), and that the repositories provide only basic biological keywords linking to PubMed. As a result, it is difficult to find datasets using research context or analysis parameters information beyond a few keywords. For example, to reduce the "curse-of-dimension" problem in microarray analysis, the number of samples is often increased by merging array data from different datasets. Knowing chip data parameters such as pre-processing steps (e.g., normalization, artefact removal, etc), and knowing any previous biological validation of the dataset is essential due to the heterogeneity of the data. However, most of the microarray repositories do not have meta-data information in the first place, and do not have a a mechanism to add or insert this information. Thus, there is a critical need to create "intelligent" microarray repositories that (1) enable update of meta-data with the raw array data, and (2) provide standardized archiving protocols to minimize bias from the raw data sources. Results To address the problems discussed, we have developed a community maintained system called ArrayWiki that unites disparate meta-data of microarray meta-experiments from multiple primary sources with four key features. First, ArrayWiki provides a user-friendly knowledge management interface in addition to a programmable interface using standards developed by Wikipedia. Second, ArrayWiki includes automated quality control processes (caCORRECT) and novel visualization methods (BioPNG, Gel Plots), which provide extra information about data quality unavailable in other microarray repositories. Third, it provides a user-curation capability through the familiar Wiki interface. Fourth, ArrayWiki provides users with simple text-based searches across all experiment meta-data, and exposes data to search engine crawlers

  7. A High Phosphorus Diet Affects Lipid Metabolism in Rat Liver: A DNA Microarray Analysis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chun, Sunwoo; Bamba, Takeshi; Suyama, Tatsuya; Ishijima, Tomoko; Fukusaki, Eiichiro; Abe, Keiko; Nakai, Yuji

    2016-01-01

    A high phosphorus (HP) diet causes disorders of renal function, bone metabolism, and vascular function. We previously demonstrated that DNA microarray analysis is an appropriate method to comprehensively evaluate the effects of a HP diet on kidney dysfunction such as calcification, fibrillization, and inflammation. We reported that type IIb sodium-dependent phosphate transporter is significantly up-regulated in this context. In the present study, we performed DNA microarray analysis to investigate the effects of a HP diet on the liver, which plays a pivotal role in energy metabolism. DNA microarray analysis was performed with total RNA isolated from the livers of rats fed a control diet (containing 0.3% phosphorus) or a HP diet (containing 1.2% phosphorus). Gene Ontology analysis of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) revealed that the HP diet induced down-regulation of genes involved in hepatic amino acid catabolism and lipogenesis, while genes related to fatty acid β-oxidation process were up-regulated. Although genes related to fatty acid biosynthesis were down-regulated in HP diet-fed rats, genes important for the elongation and desaturation reactions of omega-3 and -6 fatty acids were up-regulated. Concentrations of hepatic arachidonic acid and eicosapentaenoic acid were increased in HP diet-fed rats. These essential fatty acids activate peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alpha (PPARα), a transcription factor for fatty acid β-oxidation. Evaluation of the upstream regulators of DEGs using Ingenuity Pathway Analysis indicated that PPARα was activated in the livers of HP diet-fed rats. Furthermore, the serum concentration of fibroblast growth factor 21, a hormone secreted from the liver that promotes fatty acid utilization in adipose tissue as a PPARα target gene, was higher (p = 0.054) in HP diet-fed rats than in control diet-fed rats. These data suggest that a HP diet enhances energy expenditure through the utilization of free fatty acids

  8. A High Phosphorus Diet Affects Lipid Metabolism in Rat Liver: A DNA Microarray Analysis.

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    Sunwoo Chun

    Full Text Available A high phosphorus (HP diet causes disorders of renal function, bone metabolism, and vascular function. We previously demonstrated that DNA microarray analysis is an appropriate method to comprehensively evaluate the effects of a HP diet on kidney dysfunction such as calcification, fibrillization, and inflammation. We reported that type IIb sodium-dependent phosphate transporter is significantly up-regulated in this context. In the present study, we performed DNA microarray analysis to investigate the effects of a HP diet on the liver, which plays a pivotal role in energy metabolism. DNA microarray analysis was performed with total RNA isolated from the livers of rats fed a control diet (containing 0.3% phosphorus or a HP diet (containing 1.2% phosphorus. Gene Ontology analysis of differentially expressed genes (DEGs revealed that the HP diet induced down-regulation of genes involved in hepatic amino acid catabolism and lipogenesis, while genes related to fatty acid β-oxidation process were up-regulated. Although genes related to fatty acid biosynthesis were down-regulated in HP diet-fed rats, genes important for the elongation and desaturation reactions of omega-3 and -6 fatty acids were up-regulated. Concentrations of hepatic arachidonic acid and eicosapentaenoic acid were increased in HP diet-fed rats. These essential fatty acids activate peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alpha (PPARα, a transcription factor for fatty acid β-oxidation. Evaluation of the upstream regulators of DEGs using Ingenuity Pathway Analysis indicated that PPARα was activated in the livers of HP diet-fed rats. Furthermore, the serum concentration of fibroblast growth factor 21, a hormone secreted from the liver that promotes fatty acid utilization in adipose tissue as a PPARα target gene, was higher (p = 0.054 in HP diet-fed rats than in control diet-fed rats. These data suggest that a HP diet enhances energy expenditure through the utilization of free fatty

  9. Clinical evaluation of a Mucorales-specific real-time PCR assay in tissue and serum samples.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Springer, Jan; Lackner, Michaela; Ensinger, Christian; Risslegger, Brigitte; Morton, Charles Oliver; Nachbaur, David; Lass-Flörl, Cornelia; Einsele, Hermann; Heinz, Werner J; Loeffler, Juergen

    2016-12-01

    Molecular diagnostic assays can accelerate the diagnosis of fungal infections and subsequently improve patient outcomes. In particular, the detection of infections due to Mucorales is still challenging for laboratories and physicians. The aim of this study was to evaluate a probe-based Mucorales-specific real-time PCR assay (Muc18S) using tissue and serum samples from patients suffering from invasive mucormycosis (IMM). This assay can detect a broad range of clinically relevant Mucorales species and can be used to complement existing diagnostic tests or to screen high-risk patients. An advantage of the Muc18S assay is that it exclusively detects Mucorales species allowing the diagnosis of Mucorales DNA without sequencing within a few hours. In paraffin-embedded tissue samples this PCR-based method allowed rapid identification of Mucorales in comparison with standard methods and showed 91 % sensitivity in the IMM tissue samples. We also evaluated serum samples, an easily accessible material, from patients at risk from IMM. Mucorales DNA was detected in all patients with probable/proven IMM (100 %) and in 29 % of the possible cases. Detection of IMM in serum could enable an earlier diagnosis (up to 21 days) than current methods including tissue samples, which were gained mainly post-mortem. A screening strategy for high-risk patients, which would enable targeted treatment to improve patient outcomes, is therefore possible.

  10. The application of DNA microarrays in gene expression analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    van Hal, N L; Vorst, O; van Houwelingen, A M; Kok, E J; Peijnenburg, A; Aharoni, A; van Tunen, A J; Keijer, J

    2000-03-31

    DNA microarray technology is a new and powerful technology that will substantially increase the speed of molecular biological research. This paper gives a survey of DNA microarray technology and its use in gene expression studies. The technical aspects and their potential improvements are discussed. These comprise array manufacturing and design, array hybridisation, scanning, and data handling. Furthermore, it is discussed how DNA microarrays can be applied in the working fields of: safety, functionality and health of food and gene discovery and pathway engineering in plants.

  11. Synovial tissue heterogeneity in rheumatoid arthritis in relation to disease activity and biomarkers in peripheral blood

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    van Baarsen, Lisa G. M.; Wijbrandts, Carla A.; Timmer, Trieneke C. G.; van der Pouw Kraan, Tineke C. T. M.; Tak, Paul P.; Verweij, Cornelis L.

    2010-01-01

    OBJECTIVE: To investigate the clinical relevance of synovial tissue subtypes in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and to search for peripheral blood (PB) markers that may serve as biomarkers for tissue subtypes. METHODS: Gene expression analysis using complementary DNA microarrays was applied on paired

  12. Comparative RNA-Seq and microarray analysis of gene expression changes in B-cell lymphomas of Canis familiaris.

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    Marie Mooney

    Full Text Available Comparative oncology is a developing research discipline that is being used to assist our understanding of human neoplastic diseases. Companion canines are a preferred animal oncology model due to spontaneous tumor development and similarity to human disease at the pathophysiological level. We use a paired RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq/microarray analysis of a set of four normal canine lymph nodes and ten canine lymphoma fine needle aspirates to identify technical biases and variation between the technologies and convergence on biological disease pathways. Surrogate Variable Analysis (SVA provides a formal multivariate analysis of the combined RNA-Seq/microarray data set. Applying SVA to the data allows us to decompose variation into contributions associated with transcript abundance, differences between the technology, and latent variation within each technology. A substantial and highly statistically significant component of the variation reflects transcript abundance, and RNA-Seq appeared more sensitive for detection of transcripts expressed at low levels. Latent random variation among RNA-Seq samples is also distinct in character from that impacting microarray samples. In particular, we observed variation between RNA-Seq samples that reflects transcript GC content. Platform-independent variable decomposition without a priori knowledge of the sources of variation using SVA represents a generalizable method for accomplishing cross-platform data analysis. We identified genes differentially expressed between normal lymph nodes of disease free dogs and a subset of the diseased dogs diagnosed with B-cell lymphoma using each technology. There is statistically significant overlap between the RNA-Seq and microarray sets of differentially expressed genes. Analysis of overlapping genes in the context of biological systems suggests elevated expression and activity of PI3K signaling in B-cell lymphoma biopsies compared with normal biopsies, consistent with

  13. Identification of proteomic biomarkers predicting prostate cancer aggressiveness and lethality despite biopsy-sampling error.

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    Shipitsin, M; Small, C; Choudhury, S; Giladi, E; Friedlander, S; Nardone, J; Hussain, S; Hurley, A D; Ernst, C; Huang, Y E; Chang, H; Nifong, T P; Rimm, D L; Dunyak, J; Loda, M; Berman, D M; Blume-Jensen, P

    2014-09-09

    Key challenges of biopsy-based determination of prostate cancer aggressiveness include tumour heterogeneity, biopsy-sampling error, and variations in biopsy interpretation. The resulting uncertainty in risk assessment leads to significant overtreatment, with associated costs and morbidity. We developed a performance-based strategy to identify protein biomarkers predictive of prostate cancer aggressiveness and lethality regardless of biopsy-sampling variation. Prostatectomy samples from a large patient cohort with long follow-up were blindly assessed by expert pathologists who identified the tissue regions with the highest and lowest Gleason grade from each patient. To simulate biopsy-sampling error, a core from a high- and a low-Gleason area from each patient sample was used to generate a 'high' and a 'low' tumour microarray, respectively. Using a quantitative proteomics approach, we identified from 160 candidates 12 biomarkers that predicted prostate cancer aggressiveness (surgical Gleason and TNM stage) and lethal outcome robustly in both high- and low-Gleason areas. Conversely, a previously reported lethal outcome-predictive marker signature for prostatectomy tissue was unable to perform under circumstances of maximal sampling error. Our results have important implications for cancer biomarker discovery in general and development of a sampling error-resistant clinical biopsy test for prediction of prostate cancer aggressiveness.

  14. A novel synthetic peptide microarray assay detects Chlamydia species-specific antibodies in animal and human sera.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sachse, Konrad; Rahman, Kh Shamsur; Schnee, Christiane; Müller, Elke; Peisker, Madlen; Schumacher, Thomas; Schubert, Evelyn; Ruettger, Anke; Kaltenboeck, Bernhard; Ehricht, Ralf

    2018-03-16

    Serological analysis of Chlamydia (C.) spp. infections is still mainly based on micro-immunofluorescence and ELISA. To overcome the limitations of conventional serology, we have designed a novel microarray carrying 52 synthetic peptides representing B-cell epitopes from immunodominant proteins of all 11 chlamydial species. The new assay has been validated using monospecific mouse hyperimmune sera. Subsequently, serum samples from cattle, sheep and humans with a known history of chlamydial infection were examined. For instance, the specific humoral response of sheep to treatment with a C. abortus vaccine has been visualized against a background of C. pecorum carriership. In samples from humans, dual infection with C. trachomatis and C. pneumoniae could be demonstrated. The experiments revealed that the peptide microarray assay was capable of simultaneously identifying specific antibodies to each Chlamydia spp. The actual assay represents an open platform test that can be complemented through future advances in Chlamydia proteome research. The concept of the highly parallel multi-antigen microarray proven in this study has the potential to enhance our understanding of antibody responses by defining not only a single quantitative response, but also the pattern of this response. The added value of using peptide antigens will consist in unprecedented serodiagnostic specificity.

  15. Genomic expression patterns of cardiac tissues from dogs with dilated cardiomyopathy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Oyama, Mark A; Chittur, Sridar

    2005-07-01

    To evaluate global genome expression patterns of left ventricular tissues from dogs with dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM). Tissues obtained from the left ventricle of 2 Doberman Pinschers with end-stage DCM and 5 healthy control dogs. Transcriptional activities of 23,851 canine DNA sequences were determined by use of an oligonucleotide microarray. Genome expression patterns of DCM tissue were evaluated by measuring the relative amount of complementary RNA hybridization to the microarray probes and comparing it with gene expression for tissues from 5 healthy control dogs. 478 transcripts were differentially expressed (> or = 2.5-fold change). In DCM tissue, expression of 173 transcripts was upregulated and expression of 305 transcripts was downregulated, compared with expression for control tissues. Of the 478 transcripts, 167 genes could be specifically identified. These genes were grouped into 1 of 8 categories on the basis of their primary physiologic function. Grouping revealed that pathways involving cellular energy production, signaling and communication, and cell structure were generally downregulated, whereas pathways involving cellular defense and stress responses were upregulated. Many previously unreported genes that may contribute to the pathophysiologic aspects of heart disease were identified. Evaluation of global expression patterns provides a molecular portrait of heart failure, yields insights into the pathophysiologic aspects of DCM, and identifies intriguing genes and pathways for further study.

  16. Identification and target prediction of miRNAs specifically expressed in rat neural tissue

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    Tu Kang

    2009-05-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background MicroRNAs (miRNAs are a large group of RNAs that play important roles in regulating gene expression and protein translation. Several studies have indicated that some miRNAs are specifically expressed in human, mouse and zebrafish tissues. For example, miR-1 and miR-133 are specifically expressed in muscles. Tissue-specific miRNAs may have particular functions. Although previous studies have reported the presence of human, mouse and zebrafish tissue-specific miRNAs, there have been no detailed reports of rat tissue-specific miRNAs. In this study, Home-made rat miRNA microarrays which established in our previous study were used to investigate rat neural tissue-specific miRNAs, and mapped their target genes in rat tissues. This study will provide information for the functional analysis of these miRNAs. Results In order to obtain as complete a picture of specific miRNA expression in rat neural tissues as possible, customized miRNA microarrays with 152 selected miRNAs from miRBase were used to detect miRNA expression in 14 rat tissues. After a general clustering analysis, 14 rat tissues could be clearly classified into neural and non-neural tissues based on the obtained expression profiles with p values Conclusion Our work provides a global view of rat neural tissue-specific miRNA profiles and a target map of miRNAs, which is expected to contribute to future investigations of miRNA regulatory mechanisms in neural systems.

  17. Microarray-based IgE detection in tears of patients with vernal keratoconjunctivitis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Leonardi, Andrea; Borghesan, Franco; Faggian, Diego; Plebani, Mario

    2015-11-01

    A specific allergen sensitization can be demonstrated in approximately half of the vernal keratoconjunctivitis (VKC) patients by conventional allergic tests. The measurement of specific IgE in tears using a multiplex allergen microarray may offer advantages to identify local sensitization to a specific allergen. In spring-summer 2011, serum and tears samples were collected from 10 active VKC patients (three females, seven males) and 10 age-matched normal subjects. Skin prick test, symptoms score and full ophthalmological examination were performed. Specific serum and tear IgE were assayed using ImmunoCAP ISAC, a microarray containing 103 components derived from 47 allergens. Normal subjects resulted negative for the presence of specific IgE both in serum and in tears. Of the 10 VKC patients, six resulted positive to specific IgE in serum and/or tears. In three of these six patients, specific IgE was found positive only in tears. Cross-reactivity between specific markers was found in three patients. Grass, tree, mites, animal but also food allergen-specific IgE were found in tears. Conjunctival provocation test performed out of season confirmed the specific local conjunctival reactivity. Multiple specific IgE measurements with single protein allergens using a microarray technique in tear samples are a useful, simple and non-invasive diagnostic tool. ImmunoCAP ISAC detects allergen sensitization at component level and adds important information by defining both cross- and co-sensitization to a large variety of allergen molecules. The presence of specific IgE only in tears of VKC patients reinforces the concept of possible local sensitization. © 2015 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  18. 16S rRNA based microarray analysis of ten periodontal bacteria in patients with different forms of periodontitis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Topcuoglu, Nursen; Kulekci, Guven

    2015-10-01

    DNA microarray analysis is a computer based technology, that a reverse capture, which targets 10 periodontal bacteria (ParoCheck) is available for rapid semi-quantitative determination. The aim of this three-year retrospective study was to display the microarray analysis results for the subgingival biofilm samples taken from patient cases diagnosed with different forms of periodontitis. A total of 84 patients with generalized aggressive periodontitis (GAP,n:29), generalized chronic periodontitis (GCP, n:25), peri-implantitis (PI,n:14), localized aggressive periodontitis (LAP,n:8) and refractory chronic periodontitis (RP,n:8) were consecutively selected from the archives of the Oral Microbiological Diagnostic Laboratory. The subgingival biofilm samples were analyzed by the microarray-based identification of 10 selected species. All the tested species were detected in the samples. The red complex bacteria were the most prevalent with very high levels in all groups. Fusobacterium nucleatum was detected in all samples at high levels. The green and blue complex bacteria were less prevalent compared with red and orange complex, except Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitas was detected in all LAP group. Positive correlations were found within all the red complex bacteria and between red and orange complex bacteria especially in GCP and GAP groups. Parocheck enables to monitoring of periodontal pathogens in all forms of periodontal disease and can be alternative to other guiding and reliable microbiologic tests. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  19. The intraclass correlation coefficient applied for evaluation of data correction, labeling methods and rectal biopsy sampling in DNA microarray experiments

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Pellis, E.P.M.; Franssen-Hal, van N.L.W.; Burema, J.; Keijer, J.

    2003-01-01

    We show that the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) can be used as a relatively simple statistical measure to assess methodological and biological variation in DNA microarray analysis. The ICC is a measure that determines the reproducibility of a variable, which can easily be calculated from

  20. Advanced Data Mining of Leukemia Cells Micro-Arrays

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    Richard S. Segall

    2009-12-01

    Full Text Available This paper provides continuation and extensions of previous research by Segall and Pierce (2009a that discussed data mining for micro-array databases of Leukemia cells for primarily self-organized maps (SOM. As Segall and Pierce (2009a and Segall and Pierce (2009b the results of applying data mining are shown and discussed for the data categories of microarray databases of HL60, Jurkat, NB4 and U937 Leukemia cells that are also described in this article. First, a background section is provided on the work of others pertaining to the applications of data mining to micro-array databases of Leukemia cells and micro-array databases in general. As noted in predecessor article by Segall and Pierce (2009a, micro-array databases are one of the most popular functional genomics tools in use today. This research in this paper is intended to use advanced data mining technologies for better interpretations and knowledge discovery as generated by the patterns of gene expressions of HL60, Jurkat, NB4 and U937 Leukemia cells. The advanced data mining performed entailed using other data mining tools such as cubic clustering criterion, variable importance rankings, decision trees, and more detailed examinations of data mining statistics and study of other self-organized maps (SOM clustering regions of workspace as generated by SAS Enterprise Miner version 4. Conclusions and future directions of the research are also presented.

  1. Significance analysis of lexical bias in microarray data

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    Falkow Stanley

    2003-04-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Genes that are determined to be significantly differentially regulated in microarray analyses often appear to have functional commonalities, such as being components of the same biochemical pathway. This results in certain words being under- or overrepresented in the list of genes. Distinguishing between biologically meaningful trends and artifacts of annotation and analysis procedures is of the utmost importance, as only true biological trends are of interest for further experimentation. A number of sophisticated methods for identification of significant lexical trends are currently available, but these methods are generally too cumbersome for practical use by most microarray users. Results We have developed a tool, LACK, for calculating the statistical significance of apparent lexical bias in microarray datasets. The frequency of a user-specified list of search terms in a list of genes which are differentially regulated is assessed for statistical significance by comparison to randomly generated datasets. The simplicity of the input files and user interface targets the average microarray user who wishes to have a statistical measure of apparent lexical trends in analyzed datasets without the need for bioinformatics skills. The software is available as Perl source or a Windows executable. Conclusion We have used LACK in our laboratory to generate biological hypotheses based on our microarray data. We demonstrate the program's utility using an example in which we confirm significant upregulation of SPI-2 pathogenicity island of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium by the cation chelator dipyridyl.

  2. Identification of potential biomarkers from microarray experiments using multiple criteria optimization

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sánchez-Peña, Matilde L; Isaza, Clara E; Pérez-Morales, Jaileene; Rodríguez-Padilla, Cristina; Castro, José M; Cabrera-Ríos, Mauricio

    2013-01-01

    Microarray experiments are capable of determining the relative expression of tens of thousands of genes simultaneously, thus resulting in very large databases. The analysis of these databases and the extraction of biologically relevant knowledge from them are challenging tasks. The identification of potential cancer biomarker genes is one of the most important aims for microarray analysis and, as such, has been widely targeted in the literature. However, identifying a set of these genes consistently across different experiments, researches, microarray platforms, or cancer types is still an elusive endeavor. Besides the inherent difficulty of the large and nonconstant variability in these experiments and the incommensurability between different microarray technologies, there is the issue of the users having to adjust a series of parameters that significantly affect the outcome of the analyses and that do not have a biological or medical meaning. In this study, the identification of potential cancer biomarkers from microarray data is casted as a multiple criteria optimization (MCO) problem. The efficient solutions to this problem, found here through data envelopment analysis (DEA), are associated to genes that are proposed as potential cancer biomarkers. The method does not require any parameter adjustment by the user, and thus fosters repeatability. The approach also allows the analysis of different microarray experiments, microarray platforms, and cancer types simultaneously. The results include the analysis of three publicly available microarray databases related to cervix cancer. This study points to the feasibility of modeling the selection of potential cancer biomarkers from microarray data as an MCO problem and solve it using DEA. Using MCO entails a new optic to the identification of potential cancer biomarkers as it does not require the definition of a threshold value to establish significance for a particular gene and the selection of a normalization

  3. Implementation of immunohistochemistry on frozen ear notch tissue samples in diagnosis of bovine viral diarrhea virus in persistently infected cattle

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bedeković Tomislav

    2011-12-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Bovine viral diarrhea is a contagious disease of domestic and wild ruminants and one of the most economically important diseases in cattle. Bovine viral diarrhea virus belongs to the genus Pestivirus, within the family Flaviviridae. The identification and elimination of the persistently infected animals from herds is the initial step in the control and eradication programs. It is therefore necessary to have reliable methods for diagnosis of bovine viral diarrhea virus. One of those methods is immunohistochemistry. Immunohistochemistry on formalin fixed, paraffin embedded tissue is a routine technique in diagnosis of persistently infected cattle from ear notch tissue samples. However, such technique is inappropriate due to complicated tissue fixation process and it requires more days for preparation. On the contrary, immunohistochemistry on frozen tissue was usually applied on organs from dead animals. In this paper, for the first time, the imunohistochemistry on frozen ear notch tissue samples was described. Findings Seventeen ear notch tissue samples were obtained during the period 2008-2009 from persistently infected cattle. Samples were fixed in liquid nitrogen and stored on -20°C until testing. Ear notch tissue samples from all persistently infected cattle showed positive results with good section quality and possibility to determinate type of infected cells. Conclusions Although the number of samples was limited, this study indicated that immunohistochemistry on formalin fixed paraffin embedded tissue can be successfully replaced with immunohistochemistry on frozen ear notch tissue samples in diagnosis of persistently infected cattle.

  4. Identifying Fishes through DNA Barcodes and Microarrays.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Marc Kochzius

    2010-09-01

    Full Text Available International fish trade reached an import value of 62.8 billion Euro in 2006, of which 44.6% are covered by the European Union. Species identification is a key problem throughout the life cycle of fishes: from eggs and larvae to adults in fisheries research and control, as well as processed fish products in consumer protection.This study aims to evaluate the applicability of the three mitochondrial genes 16S rRNA (16S, cytochrome b (cyt b, and cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI for the identification of 50 European marine fish species by combining techniques of "DNA barcoding" and microarrays. In a DNA barcoding approach, neighbour Joining (NJ phylogenetic trees of 369 16S, 212 cyt b, and 447 COI sequences indicated that cyt b and COI are suitable for unambiguous identification, whereas 16S failed to discriminate closely related flatfish and gurnard species. In course of probe design for DNA microarray development, each of the markers yielded a high number of potentially species-specific probes in silico, although many of them were rejected based on microarray hybridisation experiments. None of the markers provided probes to discriminate the sibling flatfish and gurnard species. However, since 16S-probes were less negatively influenced by the "position of label" effect and showed the lowest rejection rate and the highest mean signal intensity, 16S is more suitable for DNA microarray probe design than cty b and COI. The large portion of rejected COI-probes after hybridisation experiments (>90% renders the DNA barcoding marker as rather unsuitable for this high-throughput technology.Based on these data, a DNA microarray containing 64 functional oligonucleotide probes for the identification of 30 out of the 50 fish species investigated was developed. It represents the next step towards an automated and easy-to-handle method to identify fish, ichthyoplankton, and fish products.

  5. Facilitating functional annotation of chicken microarray data

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gresham Cathy R

    2009-10-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Modeling results from chicken microarray studies is challenging for researchers due to little functional annotation associated with these arrays. The Affymetrix GenChip chicken genome array, one of the biggest arrays that serve as a key research tool for the study of chicken functional genomics, is among the few arrays that link gene products to Gene Ontology (GO. However the GO annotation data presented by Affymetrix is incomplete, for example, they do not show references linked to manually annotated functions. In addition, there is no tool that facilitates microarray researchers to directly retrieve functional annotations for their datasets from the annotated arrays. This costs researchers amount of time in searching multiple GO databases for functional information. Results We have improved the breadth of functional annotations of the gene products associated with probesets on the Affymetrix chicken genome array by 45% and the quality of annotation by 14%. We have also identified the most significant diseases and disorders, different types of genes, and known drug targets represented on Affymetrix chicken genome array. To facilitate functional annotation of other arrays and microarray experimental datasets we developed an Array GO Mapper (AGOM tool to help researchers to quickly retrieve corresponding functional information for their dataset. Conclusion Results from this study will directly facilitate annotation of other chicken arrays and microarray experimental datasets. Researchers will be able to quickly model their microarray dataset into more reliable biological functional information by using AGOM tool. The disease, disorders, gene types and drug targets revealed in the study will allow researchers to learn more about how genes function in complex biological systems and may lead to new drug discovery and development of therapies. The GO annotation data generated will be available for public use via AgBase website and

  6. Versatile High Resolution Oligosaccharide Microarrays for Plant Glycobiology and Cell Wall Research

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Pedersen, Henriette Lodberg; Fangel, Jonatan Ulrik; McCleary, Barry

    2012-01-01

    Microarrays are powerful tools for high throughput analysis, and hundreds or thousands of molecular interactions can be assessed simultaneously using very small amounts of analytes. Nucleotide microarrays are well established in plant research, but carbohydrate microarrays are much less establish...

  7. The application of DNA microarrays in gene expression analysis

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Hal, van N.L.W.; Vorst, O.; Houwelingen, van A.M.M.L.; Kok, E.J.; Peijnenburg, A.A.C.M.; Aharoni, A.; Tunen, van A.J.; Keijer, J.

    2000-01-01

    DNA microarray technology is a new and powerful technology that will substantially increase the speed of molecular biological research. This paper gives a survey of DNA microarray technology and its use in gene expression studies. The technical aspects and their potential improvements are discussed.

  8. Long non-coding RNA expression profile in cervical cancer tissues

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhu, Hua; Chen, Xiangjian; Hu, Yan; Shi, Zhengzheng; Zhou, Qing; Zheng, Jingjie; Wang, Yifeng

    2017-01-01

    Cervical cancer (CC), one of the most common types of cancer of the female population, presents an enormous challenge in diagnosis and treatment. Long non-coding (lnc)RNAs, non-coding (nc)RNAs with length >200 nucleotides, have been identified to be associated with multiple types of cancer, including CC. This class of nc transcripts serves an important role in tumor suppression and oncogenic signaling pathways. In the present study, the microarray method was used to obtain the expression profile of lncRNAs and protein-coding mRNAs and to compare the expression of lncRNAs between CC tissues and corresponding adjacent non-cancerous tissues in order to screen potential lncRNAs for associations with CC. Overall, 3356 lncRNAs with significantly different expression pattern in CC tissues compared with adjacent non-cancerous tissues were identified, while 1,857 of them were upregulated. These differentially expressed lncRNAs were additionally classified into 5 subgroups. Reverse transcription quantitative polymerase chain reactions were performed to validate the expression pattern of 5 random selected lncRNAs, and 2lncRNAs were identified to have significantly different expression in CC samples compared with adjacent non-cancerous tissues. This finding suggests that those lncRNAs with different expression may serve important roles in the development of CC, and the expression data may provide information for additional study on the involvement of lncRNAs in CC. PMID:28789353

  9. Development and validation of a microarray for the investigation of the CAZymes encoded by the human gut microbiome.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Abdessamad El Kaoutari

    Full Text Available Distal gut bacteria play a pivotal role in the digestion of dietary polysaccharides by producing a large number of carbohydrate-active enzymes (CAZymes that the host otherwise does not produce. We report here the design of a custom microarray that we used to spot non-redundant DNA probes for more than 6,500 genes encoding glycoside hydrolases and lyases selected from 174 reference genomes from distal gut bacteria. The custom microarray was tested and validated by the hybridization of bacterial DNA extracted from the stool samples of lean, obese and anorexic individuals. Our results suggest that a microarray-based study can detect genes from low-abundance bacteria better than metagenomic-based studies. A striking example was the finding that a gene encoding a GH6-family cellulase was present in all subjects examined, whereas metagenomic studies have consistently failed to detect this gene in both human and animal gut microbiomes. In addition, an examination of eight stool samples allowed the identification of a corresponding CAZome core containing 46 families of glycoside hydrolases and polysaccharide lyases, which suggests the functional stability of the gut microbiota despite large taxonomical variations between individuals.

  10. Leptospiral outer membrane protein microarray, a novel approach to identification of host ligand-binding proteins.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pinne, Marija; Matsunaga, James; Haake, David A

    2012-11-01

    Leptospirosis is a zoonosis with worldwide distribution caused by pathogenic spirochetes belonging to the genus Leptospira. The leptospiral life cycle involves transmission via freshwater and colonization of the renal tubules of their reservoir hosts. Infection requires adherence to cell surfaces and extracellular matrix components of host tissues. These host-pathogen interactions involve outer membrane proteins (OMPs) expressed on the bacterial surface. In this study, we developed an Leptospira interrogans serovar Copenhageni strain Fiocruz L1-130 OMP microarray containing all predicted lipoproteins and transmembrane OMPs. A total of 401 leptospiral genes or their fragments were transcribed and translated in vitro and printed on nitrocellulose-coated glass slides. We investigated the potential of this protein microarray to screen for interactions between leptospiral OMPs and fibronectin (Fn). This approach resulted in the identification of the recently described fibronectin-binding protein, LIC10258 (MFn8, Lsa66), and 14 novel Fn-binding proteins, denoted Microarray Fn-binding proteins (MFns). We confirmed Fn binding of purified recombinant LIC11612 (MFn1), LIC10714 (MFn2), LIC11051 (MFn6), LIC11436 (MFn7), LIC10258 (MFn8, Lsa66), and LIC10537 (MFn9) by far-Western blot assays. Moreover, we obtained specific antibodies to MFn1, MFn7, MFn8 (Lsa66), and MFn9 and demonstrated that MFn1, MFn7, and MFn9 are expressed and surface exposed under in vitro growth conditions. Further, we demonstrated that MFn1, MFn4 (LIC12631, Sph2), and MFn7 enable leptospires to bind fibronectin when expressed in the saprophyte, Leptospira biflexa. Protein microarrays are valuable tools for high-throughput identification of novel host ligand-binding proteins that have the potential to play key roles in the virulence mechanisms of pathogens.

  11. Microarray assessment of virulence, antibiotic, and heavy metal resistance in an agricultural watershed creek.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Unc, Adrian; Zurek, Ludek; Peterson, Greg; Narayanan, Sanjeev; Springthorpe, Susan V; Sattar, Syed A

    2012-01-01

    Potential risks associated with impaired surface water quality have commonly been evaluated by indirect description of potential sources using various fecal microbial indicators and derived source-tracking methods. These approaches are valuable for assessing and monitoring the impacts of land-use changes and changes in management practices at the source of contamination. A more detailed evaluation of putative etiologically significant genetic determinants can add value to these assessments. We evaluated the utility of using a microarray that integrates virulence genes with antibiotic and heavy metal resistance genes to describe and discriminate among spatially and seasonally distinct water samples from an agricultural watershed creek in Eastern Ontario. Because microarray signals may be analyzed as binomial distributions, the significance of ambiguous signals can be easily evaluated by using available off-the-shelf software. The FAMD software was used to evaluate uncertainties in the signal data. Analysis of multilocus fingerprinting data sets containing missing data has shown that, for the tested system, any variability in microarray signals had a marginal effect on data interpretation. For the tested watershed, results suggest that in general the wet fall season increased the downstream detection of virulence and resistance genes. Thus, the tested microarray technique has the potential to rapidly describe the quality of surface waters and thus to provide a qualitative tool to augment quantitative microbial risk assessments. Copyright © by the American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, and Soil Science Society of America, Inc.

  12. Identification of cytokinin-responsive genes using microarray meta-analysis and RNA-Seq in Arabidopsis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bhargava, Apurva; Clabaugh, Ivory; To, Jenn P; Maxwell, Bridey B; Chiang, Yi-Hsuan; Schaller, G Eric; Loraine, Ann; Kieber, Joseph J

    2013-05-01

    Cytokinins are N(6)-substituted adenine derivatives that play diverse roles in plant growth and development. We sought to define a robust set of genes regulated by cytokinin as well as to query the response of genes not represented on microarrays. To this end, we performed a meta-analysis of microarray data from a variety of cytokinin-treated samples and used RNA-seq to examine cytokinin-regulated gene expression in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana). Microarray meta-analysis using 13 microarray experiments combined with empirically defined filtering criteria identified a set of 226 genes differentially regulated by cytokinin, a subset of which has previously been validated by other methods. RNA-seq validated about 73% of the up-regulated genes identified by this meta-analysis. In silico promoter analysis indicated an overrepresentation of type-B Arabidopsis response regulator binding elements, consistent with the role of type-B Arabidopsis response regulators as primary mediators of cytokinin-responsive gene expression. RNA-seq analysis identified 73 cytokinin-regulated genes that were not represented on the ATH1 microarray. Representative genes were verified using quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction and NanoString analysis. Analysis of the genes identified reveals a substantial effect of cytokinin on genes encoding proteins involved in secondary metabolism, particularly those acting in flavonoid and phenylpropanoid biosynthesis, as well as in the regulation of redox state of the cell, particularly a set of glutaredoxin genes. Novel splicing events were found in members of some gene families that are known to play a role in cytokinin signaling or metabolism. The genes identified in this analysis represent a robust set of cytokinin-responsive genes that are useful in the analysis of cytokinin function in plants.

  13. Microarray of DNA probes on carboxylate functional beads surface

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    黄承志; 李原芳; 黄新华; 范美坤

    2000-01-01

    The microarray of DNA probes with 5’ -NH2 and 5’ -Tex/3’ -NH2 modified terminus on 10 um carboxylate functional beads surface in the presence of 1-ethyl-3-(3-dimethylaminopropyl)-carbodiimide (EDC) is characterized in the preseni paper. it was found that the microarray capacity of DNA probes on the beads surface depends on the pH of the aqueous solution, the concentra-tion of DNA probe and the total surface area of the beads. On optimal conditions, the minimum distance of 20 mer single-stranded DNA probe microarrayed on beads surface is about 14 nm, while that of 20 mer double-stranded DNA probes is about 27 nm. If the probe length increases from 20 mer to 35 mer, its microarray density decreases correspondingly. Mechanism study shows that the binding mode of DNA probes on the beads surface is nearly parallel to the beads surface.

  14. Microarray of DNA probes on carboxylate functional beads surface

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    2000-01-01

    The microarray of DNA probes with 5′-NH2 and 5′-Tex/3′-NH2 modified terminus on 10 m m carboxylate functional beads surface in the presence of 1-ethyl-3-(3-dimethylaminopropyl)- carbodiimide (EDC) is characterized in the present paper. It was found that the microarray capacity of DNA probes on the beads surface depends on the pH of the aqueous solution, the concentration of DNA probe and the total surface area of the beads. On optimal conditions, the minimum distance of 20 mer single-stranded DNA probe microarrayed on beads surface is about 14 nm, while that of 20 mer double-stranded DNA probes is about 27 nm. If the probe length increases from 20 mer to 35 mer, its microarray density decreases correspondingly. Mechanism study shows that the binding mode of DNA probes on the beads surface is nearly parallel to the beads surface.

  15. β-empirical Bayes inference and model diagnosis of microarray data

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hossain Mollah Mohammad

    2012-06-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Microarray data enables the high-throughput survey of mRNA expression profiles at the genomic level; however, the data presents a challenging statistical problem because of the large number of transcripts with small sample sizes that are obtained. To reduce the dimensionality, various Bayesian or empirical Bayes hierarchical models have been developed. However, because of the complexity of the microarray data, no model can explain the data fully. It is generally difficult to scrutinize the irregular patterns of expression that are not expected by the usual statistical gene by gene models. Results As an extension of empirical Bayes (EB procedures, we have developed the β-empirical Bayes (β-EB approach based on a β-likelihood measure which can be regarded as an ’evidence-based’ weighted (quasi- likelihood inference. The weight of a transcript t is described as a power function of its likelihood, fβ(yt|θ. Genes with low likelihoods have unexpected expression patterns and low weights. By assigning low weights to outliers, the inference becomes robust. The value of β, which controls the balance between the robustness and efficiency, is selected by maximizing the predictive β0-likelihood by cross-validation. The proposed β-EB approach identified six significant (p−5 contaminated transcripts as differentially expressed (DE in normal/tumor tissues from the head and neck of cancer patients. These six genes were all confirmed to be related to cancer; they were not identified as DE genes by the classical EB approach. When applied to the eQTL analysis of Arabidopsis thaliana, the proposed β-EB approach identified some potential master regulators that were missed by the EB approach. Conclusions The simulation data and real gene expression data showed that the proposed β-EB method was robust against outliers. The distribution of the weights was used to scrutinize the irregular patterns of expression and diagnose the model

  16. Second harmonic sound field after insertion of a biological tissue sample

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Dong; Gong, Xiu-Fen; Zhang, Bo

    2002-01-01

    Second harmonic sound field after inserting a biological tissue sample is investigated by theory and experiment. The sample is inserted perpendicular to the sound axis, whose acoustical properties are different from those of surrounding medium (distilled water). By using the superposition of Gaussian beams and the KZK equation in quasilinear and parabolic approximations, the second harmonic field after insertion of the sample can be derived analytically and expressed as a linear combination of self- and cross-interaction of the Gaussian beams. Egg white, egg yolk, porcine liver, and porcine fat are used as the samples and inserted in the sound field radiated from a 2 MHz uniformly excited focusing source. Axial normalized sound pressure curves of the second harmonic wave before and after inserting the sample are measured and compared with the theoretical results calculated with 10 items of Gaussian beam functions.

  17. Dynamic variable selection in SNP genotype autocalling from APEX microarray data

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zamar Ruben H

    2006-11-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs are DNA sequence variations, occurring when a single nucleotide – adenine (A, thymine (T, cytosine (C or guanine (G – is altered. Arguably, SNPs account for more than 90% of human genetic variation. Our laboratory has developed a highly redundant SNP genotyping assay consisting of multiple probes with signals from multiple channels for a single SNP, based on arrayed primer extension (APEX. This mini-sequencing method is a powerful combination of a highly parallel microarray with distinctive Sanger-based dideoxy terminator sequencing chemistry. Using this microarray platform, our current genotype calling system (known as SNP Chart is capable of calling single SNP genotypes by manual inspection of the APEX data, which is time-consuming and exposed to user subjectivity bias. Results Using a set of 32 Coriell DNA samples plus three negative PCR controls as a training data set, we have developed a fully-automated genotyping algorithm based on simple linear discriminant analysis (LDA using dynamic variable selection. The algorithm combines separate analyses based on the multiple probe sets to give a final posterior probability for each candidate genotype. We have tested our algorithm on a completely independent data set of 270 DNA samples, with validated genotypes, from patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU of St. Paul's Hospital (plus one negative PCR control sample. Our method achieves a concordance rate of 98.9% with a 99.6% call rate for a set of 96 SNPs. By adjusting the threshold value for the final posterior probability of the called genotype, the call rate reduces to 94.9% with a higher concordance rate of 99.6%. We also reversed the two independent data sets in their training and testing roles, achieving a concordance rate up to 99.8%. Conclusion The strength of this APEX chemistry-based platform is its unique redundancy having multiple probes for a single SNP. Our

  18. Online recovery of radiocesium from soil, tissue paper and plant samples by supercritical fluid extraction

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kanekar, A.S.; Pathak, P.N.; Mohapatra, P.K.

    2014-01-01

    The feasibility of recovery of radio-cesium from soil, tissue papers, and plant samples has been evaluated by supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) route employing calix(4)arene-mono(crown-6) (CC) dissolved in acetonitrile. These studies showed that quantitative recovery of 137 Cs from soil samples was difficult under the conditions of these studies. However, experiments performed on tissue papers (cellulose matrix) showed quantitative recovery of 137 Cs. On the other hand, 137 Cs recovery from plant samples varied between ∼50 % (for stems) and ∼67.2 % (for leaves) employing 1x10 -3 M CC + 4 M HNO 3 dissolved in acetonitrile. (author)

  19. Novel markers for differentiation of lobular and ductal invasive breast carcinomas by laser microdissection and microarray analysis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Srovnal Josef

    2007-03-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Invasive ductal and lobular carcinomas (IDC and ILC are the most common histological types of breast cancer. Clinical follow-up data and metastatic patterns suggest that the development and progression of these tumors are different. The aim of our study was to identify gene expression profiles of IDC and ILC in relation to normal breast epithelial cells. Methods We examined 30 samples (normal ductal and lobular cells from 10 patients, IDC cells from 5 patients, ILC cells from 5 patients microdissected from cryosections of ten mastectomy specimens from postmenopausal patients. Fifty nanograms of total RNA were amplified and labeled by PCR and in vitro transcription. Samples were analysed upon Affymetrix U133 Plus 2.0 Arrays. The expression of seven differentially expressed genes (CDH1, EMP1, DDR1, DVL1, KRT5, KRT6, KRT17 was verified by immunohistochemistry on tissue microarrays. Expression of ASPN mRNA was validated by in situ hybridization on frozen sections, and CTHRC1, ASPN and COL3A1 were tested by PCR. Results Using GCOS pairwise comparison algorithm and rank products we have identified 84 named genes common to ILC versus normal cell types, 74 named genes common to IDC versus normal cell types, 78 named genes differentially expressed between normal ductal and lobular cells, and 28 named genes between IDC and ILC. Genes distinguishing between IDC and ILC are involved in epithelial-mesenchymal transition, TGF-beta and Wnt signaling. These changes were present in both tumor types but appeared to be more prominent in ILC. Immunohistochemistry for several novel markers (EMP1, DVL1, DDR1 distinguished large sets of IDC from ILC. Conclusion IDC and ILC can be differentiated both at the gene and protein levels. In this study we report two candidate genes, asporin (ASPN and collagen triple helix repeat containing 1 (CTHRC1 which might be significant in breast carcinogenesis. Besides E-cadherin, the proteins validated on tissue

  20. Microarrays for Universal Detection and Identification of Phytoplasmas

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Nicolaisen, Mogens; Nyskjold, Henriette; Bertaccini, Assunta

    2013-01-01

    Detection and identification of phytoplasmas is a laborious process often involving nested PCR followed by restriction enzyme analysis and fine-resolution gel electrophoresis. To improve throughput, other methods are needed. Microarray technology offers a generic assay that can potentially detect...... and differentiate all types of phytoplasmas in one assay. The present protocol describes a microarray-based method for identification of phytoplasmas to 16Sr group level....

  1. A comparison of sample preparation strategies for biological tissues and subsequent trace element analysis using LA-ICP-MS.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bonta, Maximilian; Török, Szilvia; Hegedus, Balazs; Döme, Balazs; Limbeck, Andreas

    2017-03-01

    Laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) is one of the most commonly applied methods for lateral trace element distribution analysis in medical studies. Many improvements of the technique regarding quantification and achievable lateral resolution have been achieved in the last years. Nevertheless, sample preparation is also of major importance and the optimal sample preparation strategy still has not been defined. While conventional histology knows a number of sample pre-treatment strategies, little is known about the effect of these approaches on the lateral distributions of elements and/or their quantities in tissues. The technique of formalin fixation and paraffin embedding (FFPE) has emerged as the gold standard in tissue preparation. However, the potential use for elemental distribution studies is questionable due to a large number of sample preparation steps. In this work, LA-ICP-MS was used to examine the applicability of the FFPE sample preparation approach for elemental distribution studies. Qualitative elemental distributions as well as quantitative concentrations in cryo-cut tissues as well as FFPE samples were compared. Results showed that some metals (especially Na and K) are severely affected by the FFPE process, whereas others (e.g., Mn, Ni) are less influenced. Based on these results, a general recommendation can be given: FFPE samples are completely unsuitable for the analysis of alkaline metals. When analyzing transition metals, FFPE samples can give comparable results to snap-frozen tissues. Graphical abstract Sample preparation strategies for biological tissues are compared with regard to the elemental distributions and average trace element concentrations.

  2. Parallel scan hyperspectral fluorescence imaging system and biomedical application for microarrays

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Liu Zhiyi; Ma Suihua; Liu Le; Guo Jihua; He Yonghong; Ji Yanhong

    2011-01-01

    Microarray research offers great potential for analysis of gene expression profile and leads to greatly improved experimental throughput. A number of instruments have been reported for microarray detection, such as chemiluminescence, surface plasmon resonance, and fluorescence markers. Fluorescence imaging is popular for the readout of microarrays. In this paper we develop a quasi-confocal, multichannel parallel scan hyperspectral fluorescence imaging system for microarray research. Hyperspectral imaging records the entire emission spectrum for every voxel within the imaged area in contrast to recording only fluorescence intensities of filter-based scanners. Coupled with data analysis, the recorded spectral information allows for quantitative identification of the contributions of multiple, spectrally overlapping fluorescent dyes and elimination of unwanted artifacts. The mechanism of quasi-confocal imaging provides a high signal-to-noise ratio, and parallel scan makes this approach a high throughput technique for microarray analysis. This system is improved with a specifically designed spectrometer which can offer a spectral resolution of 0.2 nm, and operates with spatial resolutions ranging from 2 to 30 μm . Finally, the application of the system is demonstrated by reading out microarrays for identification of bacteria.

  3. A Low Density Microarray Method for the Identification of Human Papillomavirus Type 18 Variants

    Science.gov (United States)

    Meza-Menchaca, Thuluz; Williams, John; Rodríguez-Estrada, Rocío B.; García-Bravo, Aracely; Ramos-Ligonio, Ángel; López-Monteon, Aracely; Zepeda, Rossana C.

    2013-01-01

    We describe a novel microarray based-method for the screening of oncogenic human papillomavirus 18 (HPV-18) molecular variants. Due to the fact that sequencing methodology may underestimate samples containing more than one variant we designed a specific and sensitive stacking DNA hybridization assay. This technology can be used to discriminate between three possible phylogenetic branches of HPV-18. Probes were attached covalently on glass slides and hybridized with single-stranded DNA targets. Prior to hybridization with the probes, the target strands were pre-annealed with the three auxiliary contiguous oligonucleotides flanking the target sequences. Screening HPV-18 positive cell lines and cervical samples were used to evaluate the performance of this HPV DNA microarray. Our results demonstrate that the HPV-18's variants hybridized specifically to probes, with no detection of unspecific signals. Specific probes successfully reveal detectable point mutations in these variants. The present DNA oligoarray system can be used as a reliable, sensitive and specific method for HPV-18 variant screening. Furthermore, this simple assay allows the use of inexpensive equipment, making it accessible in resource-poor settings. PMID:24077317

  4. Microengineering methods for cell-based microarrays and high-throughput drug-screening applications

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Xu Feng; Wu Jinhui; Wang Shuqi; Gurkan, Umut Atakan; Demirci, Utkan; Durmus, Naside Gozde

    2011-01-01

    Screening for effective therapeutic agents from millions of drug candidates is costly, time consuming, and often faces concerns due to the extensive use of animals. To improve cost effectiveness, and to minimize animal testing in pharmaceutical research, in vitro monolayer cell microarrays with multiwell plate assays have been developed. Integration of cell microarrays with microfluidic systems has facilitated automated and controlled component loading, significantly reducing the consumption of the candidate compounds and the target cells. Even though these methods significantly increased the throughput compared to conventional in vitro testing systems and in vivo animal models, the cost associated with these platforms remains prohibitively high. Besides, there is a need for three-dimensional (3D) cell-based drug-screening models which can mimic the in vivo microenvironment and the functionality of the native tissues. Here, we present the state-of-the-art microengineering approaches that can be used to develop 3D cell-based drug-screening assays. We highlight the 3D in vitro cell culture systems with live cell-based arrays, microfluidic cell culture systems, and their application to high-throughput drug screening. We conclude that among the emerging microengineering approaches, bioprinting holds great potential to provide repeatable 3D cell-based constructs with high temporal, spatial control and versatility.

  5. Microengineering methods for cell-based microarrays and high-throughput drug-screening applications

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Xu Feng; Wu Jinhui; Wang Shuqi; Gurkan, Umut Atakan; Demirci, Utkan [Department of Medicine, Demirci Bio-Acoustic-MEMS in Medicine (BAMM) Laboratory, Center for Biomedical Engineering, Brigham and Women' s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA (United States); Durmus, Naside Gozde, E-mail: udemirci@rics.bwh.harvard.edu [School of Engineering and Division of Biology and Medicine, Brown University, Providence, RI (United States)

    2011-09-15

    Screening for effective therapeutic agents from millions of drug candidates is costly, time consuming, and often faces concerns due to the extensive use of animals. To improve cost effectiveness, and to minimize animal testing in pharmaceutical research, in vitro monolayer cell microarrays with multiwell plate assays have been developed. Integration of cell microarrays with microfluidic systems has facilitated automated and controlled component loading, significantly reducing the consumption of the candidate compounds and the target cells. Even though these methods significantly increased the throughput compared to conventional in vitro testing systems and in vivo animal models, the cost associated with these platforms remains prohibitively high. Besides, there is a need for three-dimensional (3D) cell-based drug-screening models which can mimic the in vivo microenvironment and the functionality of the native tissues. Here, we present the state-of-the-art microengineering approaches that can be used to develop 3D cell-based drug-screening assays. We highlight the 3D in vitro cell culture systems with live cell-based arrays, microfluidic cell culture systems, and their application to high-throughput drug screening. We conclude that among the emerging microengineering approaches, bioprinting holds great potential to provide repeatable 3D cell-based constructs with high temporal, spatial control and versatility.

  6. An Introduction to MAMA (Meta-Analysis of MicroArray data) System.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Zhe; Fenstermacher, David

    2005-01-01

    Analyzing microarray data across multiple experiments has been proven advantageous. To support this kind of analysis, we are developing a software system called MAMA (Meta-Analysis of MicroArray data). MAMA utilizes a client-server architecture with a relational database on the server-side for the storage of microarray datasets collected from various resources. The client-side is an application running on the end user's computer that allows the user to manipulate microarray data and analytical results locally. MAMA implementation will integrate several analytical methods, including meta-analysis within an open-source framework offering other developers the flexibility to plug in additional statistical algorithms.

  7. A Fisheye Viewer for microarray-based gene expression data.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wu, Min; Thao, Cheng; Mu, Xiangming; Munson, Ethan V

    2006-10-13

    Microarray has been widely used to measure the relative amounts of every mRNA transcript from the genome in a single scan. Biologists have been accustomed to reading their experimental data directly from tables. However, microarray data are quite large and are stored in a series of files in a machine-readable format, so direct reading of the full data set is not feasible. The challenge is to design a user interface that allows biologists to usefully view large tables of raw microarray-based gene expression data. This paper presents one such interface--an electronic table (E-table) that uses fisheye distortion technology. The Fisheye Viewer for microarray-based gene expression data has been successfully developed to view MIAME data stored in the MAGE-ML format. The viewer can be downloaded from the project web site http://polaris.imt.uwm.edu:7777/fisheye/. The fisheye viewer was implemented in Java so that it could run on multiple platforms. We implemented the E-table by adapting JTable, a default table implementation in the Java Swing user interface library. Fisheye views use variable magnification to balance magnification for easy viewing and compression for maximizing the amount of data on the screen. This Fisheye Viewer is a lightweight but useful tool for biologists to quickly overview the raw microarray-based gene expression data in an E-table.

  8. Sensitivity and fidelity of DNA microarray improved with integration of Amplified Differential Gene Expression (ADGE

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ile Kristina E

    2003-07-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background The ADGE technique is a method designed to magnify the ratios of gene expression before detection. It improves the detection sensitivity to small change of gene expression and requires small amount of starting material. However, the throughput of ADGE is low. We integrated ADGE with DNA microarray (ADGE microarray and compared it with regular microarray. Results When ADGE was integrated with DNA microarray, a quantitative relationship of a power function between detected and input ratios was found. Because of ratio magnification, ADGE microarray was better able to detect small changes in gene expression in a drug resistant model cell line system. The PCR amplification of templates and efficient labeling reduced the requirement of starting material to as little as 125 ng of total RNA for one slide hybridization and enhanced the signal intensity. Integration of ratio magnification, template amplification and efficient labeling in ADGE microarray reduced artifacts in microarray data and improved detection fidelity. The results of ADGE microarray were less variable and more reproducible than those of regular microarray. A gene expression profile generated with ADGE microarray characterized the drug resistant phenotype, particularly with reference to glutathione, proliferation and kinase pathways. Conclusion ADGE microarray magnified the ratios of differential gene expression in a power function, improved the detection sensitivity and fidelity and reduced the requirement for starting material while maintaining high throughput. ADGE microarray generated a more informative expression pattern than regular microarray.

  9. Glycoprofiling of Early Gastric Cancer Using Lectin Microarray Technology.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Taijie; Mo, Cuiju; Qin, Xue; Li, Shan; Liu, Yinkun; Liu, Zhiming

    2018-01-01

    Recently, studies have reported that protein glycosylation plays an important role in the occurrence and development of cancer. Gastric cancer is a common cancer with high morbidity and mortality owing to most gastric cancers are discovered only at an advanced stage. Here, we aim to discover novel specific serum glycanbased biomarkers for gastric cancer. A lectin microarray with 50 kinds of tumor-associated lectin was used to detect the glycan profiles of serum samples between early gastric cancer and healthy controls. Then lectin blot was performed to validate the differences. The result of the lectin microarray showed that the signal intensities of 13 lectins showed significant differences between the healthy controls and early gastric cancer. Compared to the healthy, the normalized fluorescent intensities of the lectins PWA, LEL, and STL were significantly increased, and it implied that their specifically recognized GlcNAc showed an especially elevated expression in early gastric cancer. Moreover, the binding affinity of the lectins EEL, RCA-II, RCA-I, VAL, DSA, PHA-L, UEA, and CAL were higher in the early gastric cancer than in healthy controls. These glycan structures containing GalNAc, terminal Galβ 1-4 GlcNAc, Tri/tetraantennary N-glycan, β-1, 6GlcNAc branching structure, α-linked fucose residues, and Tn antigen were elevated in gastric cancer. While the two lectins CFL GNL reduced their binding ability. In addition, their specifically recognized N-acetyl-D-galactosamine structure and (α-1,3) mannose residues were decreased in early gastric cancer. Furthermore, lectin blot results of LEL, STL, PHA-L, RCA-I were consistent with the results of the lectin microarray. The findings of our study clarify the specific alterations for glycosylation during the pathogenesis of gastric cancer. The specific high expression of GlcNAc structure may act as a potential early diagnostic marker for gastric cancer.

  10. Gingival tissue transcriptomes in experimental gingivitis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jönsson, Daniel; Ramberg, Per; Demmer, Ryan T.; Kebschull, Moritz; Dahlén, Gunnar; Papapanou, Panos N.

    2012-01-01

    Aims We investigated the sequential gene expression in the gingiva during the induction and resolution of experimental gingivitis. Methods Twenty periodontally and systemically healthy non-smoking volunteers participated in a 3-week experimental gingivitis protocol, followed by debridement and 2-week regular plaque control. We recorded clinical indices and harvested gingival tissue samples from 4 interproximal palatal sites in half of the participants at baseline, Day 7, 14 and 21 (‘induction phase’), and at day 21, 25, 30 and 35 in the other half (‘resolution phase’). RNA was extracted, amplified, reversed transcribed, amplified, labeled and hybridized with Affymetrix Human Genome U133Plus2.0 microarrays. Paired t-tests compared gene expression changes between consecutive time points. Gene ontology analyses summarized the expression patterns into biologically relevant categories. Results The median gingival index was 0 at baseline, 2 at Day 21 and 1 at Day 35. Differential gene regulation peaked during the third week of induction and the first four days of resolution. Leukocyte transmigration, cell adhesion and antigen processing/presentation were the top differentially regulated pathways. Conclusions Transcriptomic studies enhance our understanding of the pathobiology of the reversible inflammatory gingival lesion and provide a detailed account of the dynamic tissue responses during induction and resolution of experimental gingivitis. PMID:21501207

  11. A Sorghum bicolor expression atlas reveals dynamic genotype-specific expression profiles for vegetative tissues of grain, sweet and bioenergy sorghums

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Shakoor, N; Nair, R; Crasta, O; Morris, G; Feltus, A; Kresovich, S

    2014-01-23

    Background: Effective improvement in sorghum crop development necessitates a genomics-based approach to identify functional genes and QTLs. Sequenced in 2009, a comprehensive annotation of the sorghum genome and the development of functional genomics resources is key to enable the discovery and deployment of regulatory and metabolic genes and gene networks for crop improvement. Results: This study utilizes the first commercially available whole-transcriptome sorghum microarray (Sorgh-WTa520972F) to identify tissue and genotype-specific expression patterns for all identified Sorghum bicolor exons and UTRs. The genechip contains 1,026,373 probes covering 149,182 exons (27,577 genes) across the Sorghum bicolor nuclear, chloroplast, and mitochondrial genomes. Specific probesets were also included for putative non-coding RNAs that may play a role in gene regulation (e. g., microRNAs), and confirmed functional small RNAs in related species (maize and sugarcane) were also included in our array design. We generated expression data for 78 samples with a combination of four different tissue types (shoot, root, leaf and stem), two dissected stem tissues (pith and rind) and six diverse genotypes, which included 6 public sorghum lines (R159, Atlas, Fremont, PI152611, AR2400 and PI455230) representing grain, sweet, forage, and high biomass ideotypes. Conclusions: Here we present a summary of the microarray dataset, including analysis of tissue-specific gene expression profiles and associated expression profiles of relevant metabolic pathways. With an aim to enable identification and functional characterization of genes in sorghum, this expression atlas presents a new and valuable resource to the research community.

  12. An integrated sample preparation to determine coccidiostats and emerging Fusarium-mycotoxins in various poultry tissues with LC-MS/MS.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jestoi, Marika; Rokka, Mervi; Peltonen, Kimmo

    2007-05-01

    The usefulness of an existing sample preparation technique used for ionophoric coccidiostats (lasalocid, monensin, salinomycin and narasin) was applied in the analysis of emerging Fusarium-mycotoxins beauvericin (BEA) and enniatins (ENNs) in poultry tissues (liver and meat). Also, maduramicin and liver as a new sample matrix was introduced. The developed methods were validated and applied for the determination of coccidiostats and BEA/ENNs in Finnish poultry tissues in 2004-2005. The validation parameters demonstrated that the integrated sample preparation technique is applicable to the parallel determination of these contaminants in poultry tissues. Of the samples analysed (276 meat and 43 liver), only trace levels of LAS, MON, SAL, NAR and MAD were detected in 7, 3, 5, 6 and 4% of the samples, respectively. Interestingly, for the first time, traces of BEA and ENNs could also be detected in animal tissues. BEA and ENNs A, A1, B and B1 were found in 2, 0.3, 0.6, 4 and 3% of the samples, respectively. The simultaneous presence of coccidiostats and mycotoxins was detected in three turkey samples in 2004.

  13. MicroRNA expression variability in human cervical tissues.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Patrícia M Pereira

    Full Text Available MicroRNAs (miRNAs are short (approximately 22 nt non-coding regulatory RNAs that control gene expression at the post-transcriptional level. Deregulation of miRNA expression has been discovered in a wide variety of tumours and it is now clear that they contribute to cancer development and progression. Cervical cancer is one of the most common cancers in women worldwide and there is a strong need for a non-invasive, fast and efficient method to diagnose the disease. We investigated miRNA expression profiles in cervical cancer using a microarray platform containing probes for mature miRNAs. We have evaluated miRNA expression profiles of a heterogeneous set of cervical tissues from 25 different patients. This set included 19 normal cervical tissues, 4 squamous cell carcinoma, 5 high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (HSIL and 9 low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (LSIL samples. We observed high variability in miRNA expression especially among normal cervical samples, which prevented us from obtaining a unique miRNA expression signature for this tumour type. However, deregulated miRNAs were identified in malignant and pre-malignant cervical tissues after tackling the high expression variability observed. We were also able to identify putative target genes of relevant candidate miRNAs. Our results show that miRNA expression shows natural variability among human samples, which complicates miRNA data profiling analysis. However, such expression noise can be filtered and does not prevent the identification of deregulated miRNAs that play a role in the malignant transformation of cervical squamous cells. Deregulated miRNAs highlight new candidate gene targets allowing for a better understanding of the molecular mechanism underlying the development of this tumour type.

  14. SVD identifies transcript length distribution functions from DNA microarray data and reveals evolutionary forces globally affecting GBM metabolism.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nicolas M Bertagnolli

    Full Text Available To search for evolutionary forces that might act upon transcript length, we use the singular value decomposition (SVD to identify the length distribution functions of sets and subsets of human and yeast transcripts from profiles of mRNA abundance levels across gel electrophoresis migration distances that were previously measured by DNA microarrays. We show that the SVD identifies the transcript length distribution functions as "asymmetric generalized coherent states" from the DNA microarray data and with no a-priori assumptions. Comparing subsets of human and yeast transcripts of the same gene ontology annotations, we find that in both disparate eukaryotes, transcripts involved in protein synthesis or mitochondrial metabolism are significantly shorter than typical, and in particular, significantly shorter than those involved in glucose metabolism. Comparing the subsets of human transcripts that are overexpressed in glioblastoma multiforme (GBM or normal brain tissue samples from The Cancer Genome Atlas, we find that GBM maintains normal brain overexpression of significantly short transcripts, enriched in transcripts that are involved in protein synthesis or mitochondrial metabolism, but suppresses normal overexpression of significantly longer transcripts, enriched in transcripts that are involved in glucose metabolism and brain activity. These global relations among transcript length, cellular metabolism and tumor development suggest a previously unrecognized physical mode for tumor and normal cells to differentially regulate metabolism in a transcript length-dependent manner. The identified distribution functions support a previous hypothesis from mathematical modeling of evolutionary forces that act upon transcript length in the manner of the restoring force of the harmonic oscillator.

  15. DNA microarray-based PCR ribotyping of Clostridium difficile.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schneeberg, Alexander; Ehricht, Ralf; Slickers, Peter; Baier, Vico; Neubauer, Heinrich; Zimmermann, Stefan; Rabold, Denise; Lübke-Becker, Antina; Seyboldt, Christian

    2015-02-01

    This study presents a DNA microarray-based assay for fast and simple PCR ribotyping of Clostridium difficile strains. Hybridization probes were designed to query the modularly structured intergenic spacer region (ISR), which is also the template for conventional and PCR ribotyping with subsequent capillary gel electrophoresis (seq-PCR) ribotyping. The probes were derived from sequences available in GenBank as well as from theoretical ISR module combinations. A database of reference hybridization patterns was set up from a collection of 142 well-characterized C. difficile isolates representing 48 seq-PCR ribotypes. The reference hybridization patterns calculated by the arithmetic mean were compared using a similarity matrix analysis. The 48 investigated seq-PCR ribotypes revealed 27 array profiles that were clearly distinguishable. The most frequent human-pathogenic ribotypes 001, 014/020, 027, and 078/126 were discriminated by the microarray. C. difficile strains related to 078/126 (033, 045/FLI01, 078, 126, 126/FLI01, 413, 413/FLI01, 598, 620, 652, and 660) and 014/020 (014, 020, and 449) showed similar hybridization patterns, confirming their genetic relatedness, which was previously reported. A panel of 50 C. difficile field isolates was tested by seq-PCR ribotyping and the DNA microarray-based assay in parallel. Taking into account that the current version of the microarray does not discriminate some closely related seq-PCR ribotypes, all isolates were typed correctly. Moreover, seq-PCR ribotypes without reference profiles available in the database (ribotype 009 and 5 new types) were correctly recognized as new ribotypes, confirming the performance and expansion potential of the microarray. Copyright © 2015, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

  16. Integrated olfactory receptor and microarray gene expression databases

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Crasto Chiquito J

    2007-06-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Gene expression patterns of olfactory receptors (ORs are an important component of the signal encoding mechanism in the olfactory system since they determine the interactions between odorant ligands and sensory neurons. We have developed the Olfactory Receptor Microarray Database (ORMD to house OR gene expression data. ORMD is integrated with the Olfactory Receptor Database (ORDB, which is a key repository of OR gene information. Both databases aim to aid experimental research related to olfaction. Description ORMD is a Web-accessible database that provides a secure data repository for OR microarray experiments. It contains both publicly available and private data; accessing the latter requires authenticated login. The ORMD is designed to allow users to not only deposit gene expression data but also manage their projects/experiments. For example, contributors can choose whether to make their datasets public. For each experiment, users can download the raw data files and view and export the gene expression data. For each OR gene being probed in a microarray experiment, a hyperlink to that gene in ORDB provides access to genomic and proteomic information related to the corresponding olfactory receptor. Individual ORs archived in ORDB are also linked to ORMD, allowing users access to the related microarray gene expression data. Conclusion ORMD serves as a data repository and project management system. It facilitates the study of microarray experiments of gene expression in the olfactory system. In conjunction with ORDB, ORMD integrates gene expression data with the genomic and functional data of ORs, and is thus a useful resource for both olfactory researchers and the public.

  17. The unique genomic properties of sex-biased genes: Insights from avian microarray data

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Webster Matthew T

    2008-03-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background In order to develop a framework for the analysis of sex-biased genes, we present a characterization of microarray data comparing male and female gene expression in 18 day chicken embryos for brain, gonad, and heart tissue. Results From the 15982 significantly expressed coding regions that have been assigned to either the autosomes or the Z chromosome (12979 in brain, 13301 in gonad, and 12372 in heart, roughly 18% were significantly sex-biased in any one tissue, though only 4 gene targets were biased in all tissues. The gonad was the most sex-biased tissue, followed by the brain. Sex-biased autosomal genes tended to be expressed at lower levels and in fewer tissues than unbiased gene targets, and autosomal somatic sex-biased genes had more expression noise than similar unbiased genes. Sex-biased genes linked to the Z-chromosome showed reduced expression in females, but not in males, when compared to unbiased Z-linked genes, and sex-biased Z-linked genes were also expressed in fewer tissues than unbiased Z coding regions. Third position GC content, and codon usage bias showed some sex-biased effects, primarily for autosomal genes expressed in the gonad. Finally, there were several over-represented Gene Ontology terms in the sex-biased gene sets. Conclusion On the whole, this analysis suggests that sex-biased genes have unique genomic and organismal properties that delineate them from genes that are expressed equally in males and females.

  18. Threshold-dependent sample sizes for selenium assessment with stream fish tissue

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hitt, Nathaniel P.; Smith, David R.

    2015-01-01

    Natural resource managers are developing assessments of selenium (Se) contamination in freshwater ecosystems based on fish tissue concentrations. We evaluated the effects of sample size (i.e., number of fish per site) on the probability of correctly detecting mean whole-body Se values above a range of potential management thresholds. We modeled Se concentrations as gamma distributions with shape and scale parameters fitting an empirical mean-to-variance relationship in data from southwestern West Virginia, USA (63 collections, 382 individuals). We used parametric bootstrapping techniques to calculate statistical power as the probability of detecting true mean concentrations up to 3 mg Se/kg above management thresholds ranging from 4 to 8 mg Se/kg. Sample sizes required to achieve 80% power varied as a function of management thresholds and Type I error tolerance (α). Higher thresholds required more samples than lower thresholds because populations were more heterogeneous at higher mean Se levels. For instance, to assess a management threshold of 4 mg Se/kg, a sample of eight fish could detect an increase of approximately 1 mg Se/kg with 80% power (given α = 0.05), but this sample size would be unable to detect such an increase from a management threshold of 8 mg Se/kg with more than a coin-flip probability. Increasing α decreased sample size requirements to detect above-threshold mean Se concentrations with 80% power. For instance, at an α-level of 0.05, an 8-fish sample could detect an increase of approximately 2 units above a threshold of 8 mg Se/kg with 80% power, but when α was relaxed to 0.2, this sample size was more sensitive to increasing mean Se concentrations, allowing detection of an increase of approximately 1.2 units with equivalent power. Combining individuals into 2- and 4-fish composite samples for laboratory analysis did not decrease power because the reduced number of laboratory samples was compensated for by increased

  19. A Sol-gel Integrated Dual-readout Microarray Platform for Quantification and Identification of Prostate-specific Antigen.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, SangWook; Lee, Jong Hyun; Kwon, Hyuck Gi; Laurell, Thomas; Jeong, Ok Chan; Kim, Soyoun

    2018-01-01

    Here, we report a sol-gel integrated affinity microarray for on-chip matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF-MS) that enables capture and identification of prostate?specific antigen (PSA) in samples. An anti-PSA antibody (H117) was mixed with a sol?gel, and the mixture was spotted onto a porous silicon (pSi) surface without additional surface modifications. The antibody easily penetrates the sol-gel macropore fluidic network structure, making possible high affinities. To assess the capture affinity of the platform, we performed a direct assay using fluorescein isothiocyanate-labeled PSA. Pure PSA was subjected to on-chip MALDI-TOF-MS analysis, yielding three clear mass peptide peaks (m/z = 1272, 1407, and 1872). The sol-gel microarray platform enables dual readout of PSA both fluorometric and MALDI-TOF MS analysis in biological samples. Here we report a useful method for a means for discovery of biomarkers in complex body fluids.

  20. Distribution of polybrominated diphenyl ethers in Japanese autopsy tissue and body fluid samples.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hirai, Tetsuya; Fujimine, Yoshinori; Watanabe, Shaw; Nakano, Takeshi

    2012-09-01

    Brominated flame retardants are components of many plastics and are used in products such as cars, textiles, televisions, and personal computers. Human exposure to polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) flame retardants has increased exponentially during the last three decades. Our objective was to measure the body burden and distribution of PBDEs and to determine the concentrations of the predominant PBDE congeners in samples of liver, bile, adipose tissue, and blood obtained from Japanese autopsy cases. Tissues and body fluids obtained from 20 autopsy cases were analyzed. The levels of 25 PBDE congeners, ranging from tri- to hexa-BDEs, were assessed. The geometric means of the sum of the concentrations of PBDE congeners having detection frequencies >50 % (ΣPBDE) in the blood, liver, bile, and adipose tissue were 2.4, 2.6, 1.4, and 4.3 ng/g lipid, respectively. The most abundant congeners were BDE-47 and BDE-153, followed by BDE-100, BDE-99, and BDE-28+33. These concentrations of PBDE congeners were similar to other reports of human exposure in Japan but were notably lower than concentrations than those reported in the USA. Significant positive correlations were observed between the concentrations of predominant congeners and ΣPBDE among the samples analyzed. The ΣPBDE concentration was highest in the adipose tissue, but PBDEs were distributed widely among the tissues and body fluids analyzed. The PBDE levels observed in the present study are similar to those reported in previous studies in Japan and significantly lower than those reported in the USA.

  1. Washing scaling of GeneChip microarray expression

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Krohn Knut

    2010-05-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Post-hybridization washing is an essential part of microarray experiments. Both the quality of the experimental washing protocol and adequate consideration of washing in intensity calibration ultimately affect the quality of the expression estimates extracted from the microarray intensities. Results We conducted experiments on GeneChip microarrays with altered protocols for washing, scanning and staining to study the probe-level intensity changes as a function of the number of washing cycles. For calibration and analysis of the intensity data we make use of the 'hook' method which allows intensity contributions due to non-specific and specific hybridization of perfect match (PM and mismatch (MM probes to be disentangled in a sequence specific manner. On average, washing according to the standard protocol removes about 90% of the non-specific background and about 30-50% and less than 10% of the specific targets from the MM and PM, respectively. Analysis of the washing kinetics shows that the signal-to-noise ratio doubles roughly every ten stringent washing cycles. Washing can be characterized by time-dependent rate constants which reflect the heterogeneous character of target binding to microarray probes. We propose an empirical washing function which estimates the survival of probe bound targets. It depends on the intensity contribution due to specific and non-specific hybridization per probe which can be estimated for each probe using existing methods. The washing function allows probe intensities to be calibrated for the effect of washing. On a relative scale, proper calibration for washing markedly increases expression measures, especially in the limit of small and large values. Conclusions Washing is among the factors which potentially distort expression measures. The proposed first-order correction method allows direct implementation in existing calibration algorithms for microarray data. We provide an experimental

  2. The Importance of Normalization on Large and Heterogeneous Microarray Datasets

    Science.gov (United States)

    DNA microarray technology is a powerful functional genomics tool increasingly used for investigating global gene expression in environmental studies. Microarrays can also be used in identifying biological networks, as they give insight on the complex gene-to-gene interactions, ne...

  3. Biomedical analysis of formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissue samples: The Holy Grail for molecular diagnostics.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Donczo, Boglarka; Guttman, Andras

    2018-06-05

    More than a century ago in 1893, a revolutionary idea about fixing biological tissue specimens was introduced by Ferdinand Blum, a German physician. Since then, a plethora of fixation methods have been investigated and used. Formalin fixation with paraffin embedment became the most widely used types of fixation and preservation method, due to its proper architectural conservation of tissue structures and cellular shape. The huge collection of formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded (FFPE) sample archives worldwide holds a large amount of unearthed information about diseases that could be the Holy Grail in contemporary biomarker research utilizing analytical omics based molecular diagnostics. The aim of this review is to critically evaluate the omics options for FFPE tissue sample analysis in the molecular diagnostics field. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier B.V.

  4. A single lysis solution for the analysis of tissue samples by different proteomic technologies

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Gromov, P.; Celis, J.E.; Gromova, I.

    2008-01-01

    -based proteomics (reverse-phase lysate arrays or direct antibody arrays), allowing the direct comparison of qualitative and quantitative data yielded by these technologies when applied to the same samples. The usefulness of the CLB1 solution for gel-based proteomics was further established by 2D PAGE analysis...... dissease, is driving scientists to increasingly use clinically relevant samples for biomarker and target discovery. Tissues are heterogeneous and as a result optimization of sample preparation is critical for generating accurate, representative, and highly reproducible quantitative data. Although a large...... number of protocols for preparation of tissue lysates has been published, so far no single recipe is able to provide a "one-size fits all" solubilization procedure that can be used to analyse the same lysate using different proteomics technologies. Here we present evidence showing that cell lysis buffer...

  5. Micro-PIXE on thin plant tissue samples in frozen hydrated state: A novel addition to JSI nuclear microprobe

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Vavpetič, P.; Pelicon, P.; Vogel-Mikuš, K.; Grlj, N.; Pongrac, P.; Jeromel, L.; Ogrinc, N.; Regvar, M.

    2013-01-01

    Recently we completed a construction of a cryostat at Jožef Stefan Institute (JSI) nuclear microprobe enabling us to analyze various types of biological samples in frozen hydrated state using micro-PIXE/STIM/RBS. Sample load-lock system was added to our existing setup to enable us to quickly insert a sample holder with frozen hydrated tissue samples onto a cold goniometer head cooled with liquid nitrogen inside the measuring chamber. Cryotome-cut slices of frozen hydrated plant samples were mounted between two thin silicon nitride foils and then attached to the sample holder. Sufficient thermal contact between silicon nitride foils and sample holder must be achieved, as well as between the sample holder and the cold goniometer head inside the measuring chamber to prevent melting of the samples. Matrix composition of frozen hydrated tissue is consisted mostly of ice. Thinning of the sample as well as water evaporation during high vacuum and proton beam exposure was inspected by the measurements with RBS and STIM method simultaneously with micro-PIXE. For first measuring attempts a standard micro-PIXE configuration for tissue mapping was used with proton beam cross section of 1.2 × 1.2 μm 2 and a beam current of 100 pA. The temperature of the cold goniometer head was kept below 130 K throughout the entire proton beam exposure. First measurements of thin plant tissue samples in frozen hydrated state show minute sample degradation during the 10 h period of micro-PIXE measurements

  6. Harshlight: a "corrective make-up" program for microarray chips

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wittkowski Knut M

    2005-12-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Microscopists are familiar with many blemishes that fluorescence images can have due to dust and debris, glass flaws, uneven distribution of fluids or surface coatings, etc. Microarray scans do show similar artifacts, which might affect subsequent analysis. Although all but the starkest blemishes are hard to find by the unaided eye, particularly in high-density oligonucleotide arrays (HDONAs, few tools are available to help with the detection of those defects. Results We develop a novel tool, Harshlight, for the automatic detection and masking of blemishes in HDONA microarray chips. Harshlight uses a combination of statistic and image processing methods to identify three different types of defects: localized blemishes affecting a few probes, diffuse defects affecting larger areas, and extended defects which may invalidate an entire chip. Conclusion We demonstrate the use of Harshlight can materially improve analysis of HDONA chips, especially for experiments with subtle changes between samples. For the widely used MAS5 algorithm, we show that compact blemishes cause an average of 8 gene expression values per chip to change by more than 50%, two of them by more than twofold; our masking algorithm restores about two thirds of this damage. Large-scale artifacts are successfully detected and eliminated.

  7. Comparison of gene coverage of mouse oligonucleotide microarray platforms

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Medrano Juan F

    2006-03-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background The increasing use of DNA microarrays for genetical genomics studies generates a need for platforms with complete coverage of the genome. We have compared the effective gene coverage in the mouse genome of different commercial and noncommercial oligonucleotide microarray platforms by performing an in-house gene annotation of probes. We only used information about probes that is available from vendors and followed a process that any researcher may take to find the gene targeted by a given probe. In order to make consistent comparisons between platforms, probes in each microarray were annotated with an Entrez Gene id and the chromosomal position for each gene was obtained from the UCSC Genome Browser Database. Gene coverage was estimated as the percentage of Entrez Genes with a unique position in the UCSC Genome database that is tested by a given microarray platform. Results A MySQL relational database was created to store the mapping information for 25,416 mouse genes and for the probes in five microarray platforms (gene coverage level in parenthesis: Affymetrix430 2.0 (75.6%, ABI Genome Survey (81.24%, Agilent (79.33%, Codelink (78.09%, Sentrix (90.47%; and four array-ready oligosets: Sigma (47.95%, Operon v.3 (69.89%, Operon v.4 (84.03%, and MEEBO (84.03%. The differences in coverage between platforms were highly conserved across chromosomes. Differences in the number of redundant and unspecific probes were also found among arrays. The database can be queried to compare specific genomic regions using a web interface. The software used to create, update and query the database is freely available as a toolbox named ArrayGene. Conclusion The software developed here allows researchers to create updated custom databases by using public or proprietary information on genes for any organisms. ArrayGene allows easy comparisons of gene coverage between microarray platforms for any region of the genome. The comparison presented here

  8. Workflows for microarray data processing in the Kepler environment

    Science.gov (United States)

    2012-01-01

    Background Microarray data analysis has been the subject of extensive and ongoing pipeline development due to its complexity, the availability of several options at each analysis step, and the development of new analysis demands, including integration with new data sources. Bioinformatics pipelines are usually custom built for different applications, making them typically difficult to modify, extend and repurpose. Scientific workflow systems are intended to address these issues by providing general-purpose frameworks in which to develop and execute such pipelines. The Kepler workflow environment is a well-established system under continual development that is employed in several areas of scientific research. Kepler provides a flexible graphical interface, featuring clear display of parameter values, for design and modification of workflows. It has capabilities for developing novel computational components in the R, Python, and Java programming languages, all of which are widely used for bioinformatics algorithm development, along with capabilities for invoking external applications and using web services. Results We developed a series of fully functional bioinformatics pipelines addressing common tasks in microarray processing in the Kepler workflow environment. These pipelines consist of a set of tools for GFF file processing of NimbleGen chromatin immunoprecipitation on microarray (ChIP-chip) datasets and more comprehensive workflows for Affymetrix gene expression microarray bioinformatics and basic primer design for PCR experiments, which are often used to validate microarray results. Although functional in themselves, these workflows can be easily customized, extended, or repurposed to match the needs of specific projects and are designed to be a toolkit and starting point for specific applications. These workflows illustrate a workflow programming paradigm focusing on local resources (programs and data) and therefore are close to traditional shell scripting or

  9. Workflows for microarray data processing in the Kepler environment

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Stropp Thomas

    2012-05-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Microarray data analysis has been the subject of extensive and ongoing pipeline development due to its complexity, the availability of several options at each analysis step, and the development of new analysis demands, including integration with new data sources. Bioinformatics pipelines are usually custom built for different applications, making them typically difficult to modify, extend and repurpose. Scientific workflow systems are intended to address these issues by providing general-purpose frameworks in which to develop and execute such pipelines. The Kepler workflow environment is a well-established system under continual development that is employed in several areas of scientific research. Kepler provides a flexible graphical interface, featuring clear display of parameter values, for design and modification of workflows. It has capabilities for developing novel computational components in the R, Python, and Java programming languages, all of which are widely used for bioinformatics algorithm development, along with capabilities for invoking external applications and using web services. Results We developed a series of fully functional bioinformatics pipelines addressing common tasks in microarray processing in the Kepler workflow environment. These pipelines consist of a set of tools for GFF file processing of NimbleGen chromatin immunoprecipitation on microarray (ChIP-chip datasets and more comprehensive workflows for Affymetrix gene expression microarray bioinformatics and basic primer design for PCR experiments, which are often used to validate microarray results. Although functional in themselves, these workflows can be easily customized, extended, or repurposed to match the needs of specific projects and are designed to be a toolkit and starting point for specific applications. These workflows illustrate a workflow programming paradigm focusing on local resources (programs and data and therefore are close to

  10. Workflows for microarray data processing in the Kepler environment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stropp, Thomas; McPhillips, Timothy; Ludäscher, Bertram; Bieda, Mark

    2012-05-17

    Microarray data analysis has been the subject of extensive and ongoing pipeline development due to its complexity, the availability of several options at each analysis step, and the development of new analysis demands, including integration with new data sources. Bioinformatics pipelines are usually custom built for different applications, making them typically difficult to modify, extend and repurpose. Scientific workflow systems are intended to address these issues by providing general-purpose frameworks in which to develop and execute such pipelines. The Kepler workflow environment is a well-established system under continual development that is employed in several areas of scientific research. Kepler provides a flexible graphical interface, featuring clear display of parameter values, for design and modification of workflows. It has capabilities for developing novel computational components in the R, Python, and Java programming languages, all of which are widely used for bioinformatics algorithm development, along with capabilities for invoking external applications and using web services. We developed a series of fully functional bioinformatics pipelines addressing common tasks in microarray processing in the Kepler workflow environment. These pipelines consist of a set of tools for GFF file processing of NimbleGen chromatin immunoprecipitation on microarray (ChIP-chip) datasets and more comprehensive workflows for Affymetrix gene expression microarray bioinformatics and basic primer design for PCR experiments, which are often used to validate microarray results. Although functional in themselves, these workflows can be easily customized, extended, or repurposed to match the needs of specific projects and are designed to be a toolkit and starting point for specific applications. These workflows illustrate a workflow programming paradigm focusing on local resources (programs and data) and therefore are close to traditional shell scripting or R

  11. Improved porous silicon (P-Si) microarray based PSA (prostate specific antigen) immunoassay by optimized surface density of the capture antibody

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, SangWook; Kim, Soyoun; Malm, Johan; Jeong, Ok Chan; Lilja, Hans; Laurell, Thomas

    2014-01-01

    Enriching the surface density of immobilized capture antibodies enhances the detection signal of antibody sandwich microarrays. In this study, we improved the detection sensitivity of our previously developed P-Si (porous silicon) antibody microarray by optimizing concentrations of the capturing antibody. We investigated immunoassays using a P-Si microarray at three different capture antibody (PSA - prostate specific antigen) concentrations, analyzing the influence of the antibody density on the assay detection sensitivity. The LOD (limit of detection) for PSA was 2.5ngmL−1, 80pgmL−1, and 800fgmL−1 when arraying the PSA antibody, H117 at the concentration 15µgmL−1, 35µgmL−1 and 154µgmL−1, respectively. We further investigated PSA spiked into human female serum in the range of 800fgmL−1 to 500ngmL−1. The microarray showed a LOD of 800fgmL−1 and a dynamic range of 800 fgmL−1 to 80ngmL−1 in serum spiked samples. PMID:24016590

  12. Prognostic meta-signature of breast cancer developed by two-stage mixture modeling of microarray data

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    Ghosh Debashis

    2004-12-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background An increasing number of studies have profiled tumor specimens using distinct microarray platforms and analysis techniques. With the accumulating amount of microarray data, one of the most intriguing yet challenging tasks is to develop robust statistical models to integrate the findings. Results By applying a two-stage Bayesian mixture modeling strategy, we were able to assimilate and analyze four independent microarray studies to derive an inter-study validated "meta-signature" associated with breast cancer prognosis. Combining multiple studies (n = 305 samples on a common probability scale, we developed a 90-gene meta-signature, which strongly associated with survival in breast cancer patients. Given the set of independent studies using different microarray platforms which included spotted cDNAs, Affymetrix GeneChip, and inkjet oligonucleotides, the individually identified classifiers yielded gene sets predictive of survival in each study cohort. The study-specific gene signatures, however, had minimal overlap with each other, and performed poorly in pairwise cross-validation. The meta-signature, on the other hand, accommodated such heterogeneity and achieved comparable or better prognostic performance when compared with the individual signatures. Further by comparing to a global standardization method, the mixture model based data transformation demonstrated superior properties for data integration and provided solid basis for building classifiers at the second stage. Functional annotation revealed that genes involved in cell cycle and signal transduction activities were over-represented in the meta-signature. Conclusion The mixture modeling approach unifies disparate gene expression data on a common probability scale allowing for robust, inter-study validated prognostic signatures to be obtained. With the emerging utility of microarrays for cancer prognosis, it will be important to establish paradigms to meta

  13. Determination of Magnesium in Needle Biopsy Samples of Muscle Tissue by Means of Neutron Activation Analysis

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Brune, D; Sjoeberg, H E

    1964-07-15

    Magnesium has been determined by means of neutron-activation analysis in needle biopsy samples of the order of magnitude 1 mg dry weight. The procedure applied was to extract the Mg-27 activity from irradiated muscle tissue with concentrated hydrochloric acid followed by a fast hydroxide precipitation and gamma-spectrometric measurements. The Mg activity was recovered in the muscle tissue samples to (97 {+-} 2) per cent. The sensitivity for the magnesium determination is estimated as 0.3 {mu}g.

  14. Multi-tissue computational modeling analyzes pathophysiology of type 2 diabetes in MKR mice.

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    Amit Kumar

    Full Text Available Computational models using metabolic reconstructions for in silico simulation of metabolic disorders such as type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM can provide a better understanding of disease pathophysiology and avoid high experimentation costs. There is a limited amount of computational work, using metabolic reconstructions, performed in this field for the better understanding of T2DM. In this study, a new algorithm for generating tissue-specific metabolic models is presented, along with the resulting multi-confidence level (MCL multi-tissue model. The effect of T2DM on liver, muscle, and fat in MKR mice was first studied by microarray analysis and subsequently the changes in gene expression of frank T2DM MKR mice versus healthy mice were applied to the multi-tissue model to test the effect. Using the first multi-tissue genome-scale model of all metabolic pathways in T2DM, we found out that branched-chain amino acids' degradation and fatty acids oxidation pathway is downregulated in T2DM MKR mice. Microarray data showed low expression of genes in MKR mice versus healthy mice in the degradation of branched-chain amino acids and fatty-acid oxidation pathways. In addition, the flux balance analysis using the MCL multi-tissue model showed that the degradation pathways of branched-chain amino acid and fatty acid oxidation were significantly downregulated in MKR mice versus healthy mice. Validation of the model was performed using data derived from the literature regarding T2DM. Microarray data was used in conjunction with the model to predict fluxes of various other metabolic pathways in the T2DM mouse model and alterations in a number of pathways were detected. The Type 2 Diabetes MCL multi-tissue model may explain the high level of branched-chain amino acids and free fatty acids in plasma of Type 2 Diabetic subjects from a metabolic fluxes perspective.

  15. A fisheye viewer for microarray-based gene expression data

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    Munson Ethan V

    2006-10-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Microarray has been widely used to measure the relative amounts of every mRNA transcript from the genome in a single scan. Biologists have been accustomed to reading their experimental data directly from tables. However, microarray data are quite large and are stored in a series of files in a machine-readable format, so direct reading of the full data set is not feasible. The challenge is to design a user interface that allows biologists to usefully view large tables of raw microarray-based gene expression data. This paper presents one such interface – an electronic table (E-table that uses fisheye distortion technology. Results The Fisheye Viewer for microarray-based gene expression data has been successfully developed to view MIAME data stored in the MAGE-ML format. The viewer can be downloaded from the project web site http://polaris.imt.uwm.edu:7777/fisheye/. The fisheye viewer was implemented in Java so that it could run on multiple platforms. We implemented the E-table by adapting JTable, a default table implementation in the Java Swing user interface library. Fisheye views use variable magnification to balance magnification for easy viewing and compression for maximizing the amount of data on the screen. Conclusion This Fisheye Viewer is a lightweight but useful tool for biologists to quickly overview the raw microarray-based gene expression data in an E-table.

  16. Using Ambystoma mexicanum (Mexican axolotl) embryos, chemical genetics, and microarray analysis to identify signaling pathways associated with tissue regeneration.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ponomareva, Larissa V; Athippozhy, Antony; Thorson, Jon S; Voss, S Randal

    2015-12-01

    Amphibian vertebrates are important models in regenerative biology because they present exceptional regenerative capabilities throughout life. However, it takes considerable effort to rear amphibians to juvenile and adult stages for regeneration studies, and the relatively large sizes that frogs and salamanders achieve during development make them difficult to use in chemical screens. Here, we introduce a new tail regeneration model using late stage Mexican axolotl embryos. We show that axolotl embryos completely regenerate amputated tails in 7days before they exhaust their yolk supply and begin to feed. Further, we show that axolotl embryos can be efficiently reared in microtiter plates to achieve moderate throughput screening of soluble chemicals to investigate toxicity and identify molecules that alter regenerative outcome. As proof of principle, we identified integration 1 / wingless (Wnt), transforming growth factor beta (Tgf-β), and fibroblast growth factor (Fgf) pathway antagonists that completely block tail regeneration and additional chemicals that significantly affected tail outgrowth. Furthermore, we used microarray analysis to show that inhibition of Wnt signaling broadly affects transcription of genes associated with Wnt, Fgf, Tgf-β, epidermal growth factor (Egf), Notch, nerve growth factor (Ngf), homeotic gene (Hox), rat sarcoma/mitogen-activated protein kinase (Ras/Mapk), myelocytomatosis viral oncogene (Myc), tumor protein 53 (p53), and retinoic acid (RA) pathways. Punctuated changes in the expression of genes known to regulate vertebrate development were observed; this suggests the tail regeneration transcriptional program is hierarchically structured and temporally ordered. Our study establishes the axolotl as a chemical screening model to investigate signaling pathways associated with tissue regeneration. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  17. AMDA: an R package for the automated microarray data analysis

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    Foti Maria

    2006-07-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Microarrays are routinely used to assess mRNA transcript levels on a genome-wide scale. Large amount of microarray datasets are now available in several databases, and new experiments are constantly being performed. In spite of this fact, few and limited tools exist for quickly and easily analyzing the results. Microarray analysis can be challenging for researchers without the necessary training and it can be time-consuming for service providers with many users. Results To address these problems we have developed an automated microarray data analysis (AMDA software, which provides scientists with an easy and integrated system for the analysis of Affymetrix microarray experiments. AMDA is free and it is available as an R package. It is based on the Bioconductor project that provides a number of powerful bioinformatics and microarray analysis tools. This automated pipeline integrates different functions available in the R and Bioconductor projects with newly developed functions. AMDA covers all of the steps, performing a full data analysis, including image analysis, quality controls, normalization, selection of differentially expressed genes, clustering, correspondence analysis and functional evaluation. Finally a LaTEX document is dynamically generated depending on the performed analysis steps. The generated report contains comments and analysis results as well as the references to several files for a deeper investigation. Conclusion AMDA is freely available as an R package under the GPL license. The package as well as an example analysis report can be downloaded in the Services/Bioinformatics section of the Genopolis http://www.genopolis.it/

  18. A vocabulary for the identification and delineation of teratoma tissue components in hematoxylin and eosin-stained samples

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ramamurthy Bhagavatula

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available We propose a methodology for the design of features mimicking the visual cues used by pathologists when identifying tissues in hematoxylin and eosin (H&E-stained samples. Background: H&E staining is the gold standard in clinical histology; it is cheap and universally used, producing a vast number of histopathological samples. While pathologists accurately and consistently identify tissues and their pathologies, it is a time-consuming and expensive task, establishing the need for automated algorithms for improved throughput and robustness. Methods: We use an iterative feedback process to design a histopathology vocabulary (HV, a concise set of features that mimic the visual cues used by pathologists, e.g. "cytoplasm color" or "nucleus density." These features are based in histology and understood by both pathologists and engineers. We compare our HV to several generic texture-feature sets in a pixel-level classification algorithm. Results: Results on delineating and identifying tissues in teratoma tumor samples validate our expert knowledge-based approach. Conclusions: The HV can be an effective tool for identifying and delineating teratoma components from images of H&E-stained tissue samples.

  19. ArrayMining: a modular web-application for microarray analysis combining ensemble and consensus methods with cross-study normalization

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Krasnogor Natalio

    2009-10-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Statistical analysis of DNA microarray data provides a valuable diagnostic tool for the investigation of genetic components of diseases. To take advantage of the multitude of available data sets and analysis methods, it is desirable to combine both different algorithms and data from different studies. Applying ensemble learning, consensus clustering and cross-study normalization methods for this purpose in an almost fully automated process and linking different analysis modules together under a single interface would simplify many microarray analysis tasks. Results We present ArrayMining.net, a web-application for microarray analysis that provides easy access to a wide choice of feature selection, clustering, prediction, gene set analysis and cross-study normalization methods. In contrast to other microarray-related web-tools, multiple algorithms and data sets for an analysis task can be combined using ensemble feature selection, ensemble prediction, consensus clustering and cross-platform data integration. By interlinking different analysis tools in a modular fashion, new exploratory routes become available, e.g. ensemble sample classification using features obtained from a gene set analysis and data from multiple studies. The analysis is further simplified by automatic parameter selection mechanisms and linkage to web tools and databases for functional annotation and literature mining. Conclusion ArrayMining.net is a free web-application for microarray analysis combining a broad choice of algorithms based on ensemble and consensus methods, using automatic parameter selection and integration with annotation databases.

  20. Transcriptomic comparisons between cultured human adipose tissue-derived pericytes and mesenchymal stromal cells

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    Lindolfo da Silva Meirelles

    2016-03-01

    Full Text Available Mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs, sometimes called mesenchymal stem cells, are cultured cells able to give rise to mature mesenchymal cells such as adipocytes, osteoblasts, and chondrocytes, and to secrete a wide range of trophic and immunomodulatory molecules. Evidence indicates that pericytes, cells that surround and maintain physical connections with endothelial cells in blood vessels, can give rise to MSCs (da Silva Meirelles et al., 2008 [1]; Caplan and Correa, 2011 [2]. We have compared the transcriptomes of highly purified, human adipose tissue pericytes subjected to culture-expansion in pericyte medium or MSC medium, with that of human adipose tissue MSCs isolated with traditional methods to test the hypothesis that their transcriptomes are similar (da Silva Meirelles et al., 2015 [3]. Here, we provide further information and analyses of microarray data from three pericyte populations cultured in pericyte medium, three pericyte populations cultured in MSC medium, and three adipose tissue MSC populations deposited in the Gene Expression Omnibus under accession number GSE67747. Keywords: Mesenchymal stromal cells, Mesenchymal stem cells, Pericytes, Microarrays

  1. AN IMPROVED FUZZY CLUSTERING ALGORITHM FOR MICROARRAY IMAGE SPOTS SEGMENTATION

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    V.G. Biju

    2015-11-01

    Full Text Available An automatic cDNA microarray image processing using an improved fuzzy clustering algorithm is presented in this paper. The spot segmentation algorithm proposed uses the gridding technique developed by the authors earlier, for finding the co-ordinates of each spot in an image. Automatic cropping of spots from microarray image is done using these co-ordinates. The present paper proposes an improved fuzzy clustering algorithm Possibility fuzzy local information c means (PFLICM to segment the spot foreground (FG from background (BG. The PFLICM improves fuzzy local information c means (FLICM algorithm by incorporating typicality of a pixel along with gray level information and local spatial information. The performance of the algorithm is validated using a set of simulated cDNA microarray images added with different levels of AWGN noise. The strength of the algorithm is tested by computing the parameters such as the Segmentation matching factor (SMF, Probability of error (pe, Discrepancy distance (D and Normal mean square error (NMSE. SMF value obtained for PFLICM algorithm shows an improvement of 0.9 % and 0.7 % for high noise and low noise microarray images respectively compared to FLICM algorithm. The PFLICM algorithm is also applied on real microarray images and gene expression values are computed.

  2. Microarrays for global expression constructed with a low redundancy set of 27,500 sequenced cDNAs representing an array of developmental stages and physiological conditions of the soybean plant

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Retzel Ernest

    2004-09-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Microarrays are an important tool with which to examine coordinated gene expression. Soybean (Glycine max is one of the most economically valuable crop species in the world food supply. In order to accelerate both gene discovery as well as hypothesis-driven research in soybean, global expression resources needed to be developed. The applications of microarray for determining patterns of expression in different tissues or during conditional treatments by dual labeling of the mRNAs are unlimited. In addition, discovery of the molecular basis of traits through examination of naturally occurring variation in hundreds of mutant lines could be enhanced by the construction and use of soybean cDNA microarrays. Results We report the construction and analysis of a low redundancy 'unigene' set of 27,513 clones that represent a variety of soybean cDNA libraries made from a wide array of source tissue and organ systems, developmental stages, and stress or pathogen-challenged plants. The set was assembled from the 5' sequence data of the cDNA clones using cluster analysis programs. The selected clones were then physically reracked and sequenced at the 3' end. In order to increase gene discovery from immature cotyledon libraries that contain abundant mRNAs representing storage protein gene families, we utilized a high density filter normalization approach to preferentially select more weakly expressed cDNAs. All 27,513 cDNA inserts were amplified by polymerase chain reaction. The amplified products, along with some repetitively spotted control or 'choice' clones, were used to produce three 9,728-element microarrays that have been used to examine tissue specific gene expression and global expression in mutant isolines. Conclusions Global expression studies will be greatly aided by the availability of the sequence-validated and low redundancy cDNA sets described in this report. These cDNAs and ESTs represent a wide array of developmental

  3. Transgenic zebrafish reveal tissue-specific differences in estrogen signaling in response to environmental water samples.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gorelick, Daniel A; Iwanowicz, Luke R; Hung, Alice L; Blazer, Vicki S; Halpern, Marnie E

    2014-04-01

    Environmental endocrine disruptors (EEDs) are exogenous chemicals that mimic endogenous hormones such as estrogens. Previous studies using a zebrafish transgenic reporter demonstrated that the EEDs bisphenol A and genistein preferentially activate estrogen receptors (ERs) in the larval heart compared with the liver. However, it was not known whether the transgenic zebrafish reporter was sensitive enough to detect estrogens from environmental samples, whether environmental estrogens would exhibit tissue-specific effects similar to those of BPA and genistein, or why some compounds preferentially target receptors in the heart. We tested surface water samples using a transgenic zebrafish reporter with tandem estrogen response elements driving green fluorescent protein expression (5xERE:GFP). Reporter activation was colocalized with tissue-specific expression of ER genes by RNA in situ hybridization. We observed selective patterns of ER activation in transgenic fish exposed to river water samples from the Mid-Atlantic United States, with several samples preferentially activating receptors in embryonic and larval heart valves. We discovered that tissue specificity in ER activation was due to differences in the expression of ER subtypes. ERα was expressed in developing heart valves but not in the liver, whereas ERβ2 had the opposite profile. Accordingly, subtype-specific ER agonists activated the reporter in either the heart valves or the liver. The use of 5xERE:GFP transgenic zebrafish revealed an unexpected tissue-specific difference in the response to environmentally relevant estrogenic compounds. Exposure to estrogenic EEDs in utero was associated with adverse health effects, with the potentially unanticipated consequence of targeting developing heart valves.

  4. SaDA: From Sampling to Data Analysis-An Extensible Open Source Infrastructure for Rapid, Robust and Automated Management and Analysis of Modern Ecological High-Throughput Microarray Data.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Singh, Kumar Saurabh; Thual, Dominique; Spurio, Roberto; Cannata, Nicola

    2015-06-03

    One of the most crucial characteristics of day-to-day laboratory information management is the collection, storage and retrieval of information about research subjects and environmental or biomedical samples. An efficient link between sample data and experimental results is absolutely important for the successful outcome of a collaborative project. Currently available software solutions are largely limited to large scale, expensive commercial Laboratory Information Management Systems (LIMS). Acquiring such LIMS indeed can bring laboratory information management to a higher level, but most of the times this requires a sufficient investment of money, time and technical efforts. There is a clear need for a light weighted open source system which can easily be managed on local servers and handled by individual researchers. Here we present a software named SaDA for storing, retrieving and analyzing data originated from microorganism monitoring experiments. SaDA is fully integrated in the management of environmental samples, oligonucleotide sequences, microarray data and the subsequent downstream analysis procedures. It is simple and generic software, and can be extended and customized for various environmental and biomedical studies.

  5. SaDA: From Sampling to Data Analysis—An Extensible Open Source Infrastructure for Rapid, Robust and Automated Management and Analysis of Modern Ecological High-Throughput Microarray Data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Singh, Kumar Saurabh; Thual, Dominique; Spurio, Roberto; Cannata, Nicola

    2015-01-01

    One of the most crucial characteristics of day-to-day laboratory information management is the collection, storage and retrieval of information about research subjects and environmental or biomedical samples. An efficient link between sample data and experimental results is absolutely important for the successful outcome of a collaborative project. Currently available software solutions are largely limited to large scale, expensive commercial Laboratory Information Management Systems (LIMS). Acquiring such LIMS indeed can bring laboratory information management to a higher level, but most of the times this requires a sufficient investment of money, time and technical efforts. There is a clear need for a light weighted open source system which can easily be managed on local servers and handled by individual researchers. Here we present a software named SaDA for storing, retrieving and analyzing data originated from microorganism monitoring experiments. SaDA is fully integrated in the management of environmental samples, oligonucleotide sequences, microarray data and the subsequent downstream analysis procedures. It is simple and generic software, and can be extended and customized for various environmental and biomedical studies. PMID:26047146

  6. SaDA: From Sampling to Data Analysis—An Extensible Open Source Infrastructure for Rapid, Robust and Automated Management and Analysis of Modern Ecological High-Throughput Microarray Data

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kumar Saurabh Singh

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available One of the most crucial characteristics of day-to-day laboratory information management is the collection, storage and retrieval of information about research subjects and environmental or biomedical samples. An efficient link between sample data and experimental results is absolutely important for the successful outcome of a collaborative project. Currently available software solutions are largely limited to large scale, expensive commercial Laboratory Information Management Systems (LIMS. Acquiring such LIMS indeed can bring laboratory information management to a higher level, but most of the times this requires a sufficient investment of money, time and technical efforts. There is a clear need for a light weighted open source system which can easily be managed on local servers and handled by individual researchers. Here we present a software named SaDA for storing, retrieving and analyzing data originated from microorganism monitoring experiments. SaDA is fully integrated in the management of environmental samples, oligonucleotide sequences, microarray data and the subsequent downstream analysis procedures. It is simple and generic software, and can be extended and customized for various environmental and biomedical studies.

  7. Addressable droplet microarrays for single cell protein analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Salehi-Reyhani, Ali; Burgin, Edward; Ces, Oscar; Willison, Keith R; Klug, David R

    2014-11-07

    Addressable droplet microarrays are potentially attractive as a way to achieve miniaturised, reduced volume, high sensitivity analyses without the need to fabricate microfluidic devices or small volume chambers. We report a practical method for producing oil-encapsulated addressable droplet microarrays which can be used for such analyses. To demonstrate their utility, we undertake a series of single cell analyses, to determine the variation in copy number of p53 proteins in cells of a human cancer cell line.

  8. Microarray-based analysis of plasma cirDNA epigenetic modification profiling in xenografted mice exposed to intermittent hypoxia

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    Rene Cortese

    2015-09-01

    Full Text Available Intermittent hypoxia (IH during sleep is one of the major abnormalities occurring in patients suffering from obstructive sleep apnea (OSA, a highly prevalent disorder affecting 6–15% of the general population, particularly among obese people. IH has been proposed as a major determinant of oncogenetically-related processes such as tumor growth, invasion and metastasis. During the growth and expansion of tumors, fragmented DNA is released into the bloodstream and enters the circulation. Circulating tumor DNA (cirDNA conserves the genetic and epigenetic profiles from the tumor of origin and can be isolated from the plasma fraction. Here we report a microarray-based epigenetic profiling of cirDNA isolated from blood samples of mice engrafted with TC1 epithelial lung cancer cells and controls, which were exposed to IH during sleep (XenoIH group, n = 3 or control conditions, (i.e., room air (RA; XenoRA group, n = 3 conditions. To prepare the targets for microarray hybridization, we applied a previously developed method that enriches the modified fraction of the cirDNA without amplification of genomic DNA. Regions of differential cirDNA modification between the two groups were identified by hybridizing the enriched fractions for each sample to Affymetrix GeneChip Human Promoter Arrays 1.0R. Microarray raw and processed data were deposited in NCBI's Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO database (accession number: GSE61070.

  9. MICROARRAY IMAGE GRIDDING USING GRID LINE REFINEMENT TECHNIQUE

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    V.G. Biju

    2015-05-01

    Full Text Available An important stage in microarray image analysis is gridding. Microarray image gridding is done to locate sub arrays in a microarray image and find co-ordinates of spots within each sub array. For accurate identification of spots, most of the proposed gridding methods require human intervention. In this paper a fully automatic gridding method which enhances spot intensity in the preprocessing step as per a histogram based threshold method is used. The gridding step finds co-ordinates of spots from horizontal and vertical profile of the image. To correct errors due to the grid line placement, a grid line refinement technique is proposed. The algorithm is applied on different image databases and results are compared based on spot detection accuracy and time. An average spot detection accuracy of 95.06% depicts the proposed method’s flexibility and accuracy in finding the spot co-ordinates for different database images.

  10. Low or undetectable TPO receptor expression in malignant tissue and cell lines derived from breast, lung, and ovarian tumors

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    Erickson-Miller Connie L

    2012-09-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Numerous efficacious chemotherapy regimens may cause thrombocytopenia. Thrombopoietin receptor (TPO-R agonists, such as eltrombopag, represent a novel approach for the treatment of chemotherapy-induced thrombocytopenia. The TPO-R MPL is expressed on megakaryocytes and megakaryocyte precursors, although little is known about its expression on other tissues. Methods Breast, lung, and ovarian tumor samples were analyzed for MPL expression by microarray and/or quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR, and for TPO-R protein expression by immunohistochemistry (IHC. Cell line proliferation assays were used to analyze the in vitro effect of eltrombopag on breast, lung, and ovarian tumor cell proliferation. The lung carcinoma cell lines were also analyzed for TPO-R protein expression by Western blot. Results MPL mRNA was not detectable in 118 breast tumors and was detectable at only very low levels in 48% of 29 lung tumors studied by microarray analysis. By qRT-PCR, low but detectable levels of MPL mRNA were detectable in some normal (14-43% and malignant (3-17% breast, lung, and ovarian tissues. A comparison of MPL to EPOR, ERBB2, and IGF1R mRNA demonstrates that MPL mRNA levels were far lower than those of EPOR and ERBB2 mRNA in the same tissues. IHC analysis showed negligible TPO-R protein expression in tumor tissues, confirming mRNA analysis. Culture of breast, lung, and ovarian carcinoma cell lines showed no increase, and in fact, showed a decrease in proliferation following incubation with eltrombopag. Western blot analyses revealed no detectable TPO-R protein expression in the lung carcinoma cell lines. Conclusions Multiple analyses of breast, lung, and ovarian tumor samples and/or cell lines show no evidence of MPL mRNA or TPO-R protein expression. Eltrombopag does not stimulate growth of breast, lung, or ovarian tumor cell lines at doses likely to exert their actions on megakaryocytes and

  11. Comparison of ESR1 Mutations in Tumor Tissue and Matched Plasma Samples from Metastatic Breast Cancer Patients

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    Takashi Takeshita

    2017-10-01

    Full Text Available BACKGROUND: ESR1 mutation in circulating cell-free DNA (cfDNA is emerging as a noninvasive biomarker of acquired resistance to endocrine therapy, but there is a paucity of data comparing the status of ESR1 gene in cfDNA with that in its corresponding tumor tissue. The objective of this study is to validate the degree of concordance of ESR1 mutations between plasma and tumor tissue. METHODS: ESR1 ligand-binding domain mutations Y537S, Y537N, Y537C, and D538G were analyzed using droplet digital PCR in 35 patients with metastatic breast cancer (MBC (35 tumor tissue samples and 67 plasma samples. RESULTS: Of the 35 paired samples, 26 (74.3% were concordant: one patient had detectable ESR1 mutations both plasma (ESR1 Y537S/Y537N and tumor tissue (ESR1 Y537S/Y537C, and 25 had WT ESR1 alleles in both. Nine (25.7% had discordance between the plasma and tissue results: five had mutations detected only in their tumor tissue (two Y537S, one Y537C, one D538G, and one Y537S/Y537N/D538G, and four had mutations detected only in their plasma (one Y537S, one Y537N, and two Y537S/Y537N/D538G. Furthermore, longitudinal plasma samples from 19 patients were used to assess changes in the presence of ESR1 mutations during treatment. Eleven patients had cfDNA ESR1 mutations over the course of treatment. A total of eight of 11 patients with MBC with cfDNA ESR1 mutations (72.7% had the polyclonal mutations. CONCLUSION: We have shown the independent distribution of ESR1 mutations between plasma and tumor tissue in 35 patients with MBC.

  12. Comparison of RNA-seq and microarray-based models for clinical endpoint prediction.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Wenqian; Yu, Ying; Hertwig, Falk; Thierry-Mieg, Jean; Zhang, Wenwei; Thierry-Mieg, Danielle; Wang, Jian; Furlanello, Cesare; Devanarayan, Viswanath; Cheng, Jie; Deng, Youping; Hero, Barbara; Hong, Huixiao; Jia, Meiwen; Li, Li; Lin, Simon M; Nikolsky, Yuri; Oberthuer, André; Qing, Tao; Su, Zhenqiang; Volland, Ruth; Wang, Charles; Wang, May D; Ai, Junmei; Albanese, Davide; Asgharzadeh, Shahab; Avigad, Smadar; Bao, Wenjun; Bessarabova, Marina; Brilliant, Murray H; Brors, Benedikt; Chierici, Marco; Chu, Tzu-Ming; Zhang, Jibin; Grundy, Richard G; He, Min Max; Hebbring, Scott; Kaufman, Howard L; Lababidi, Samir; Lancashire, Lee J; Li, Yan; Lu, Xin X; Luo, Heng; Ma, Xiwen; Ning, Baitang; Noguera, Rosa; Peifer, Martin; Phan, John H; Roels, Frederik; Rosswog, Carolina; Shao, Susan; Shen, Jie; Theissen, Jessica; Tonini, Gian Paolo; Vandesompele, Jo; Wu, Po-Yen; Xiao, Wenzhong; Xu, Joshua; Xu, Weihong; Xuan, Jiekun; Yang, Yong; Ye, Zhan; Dong, Zirui; Zhang, Ke K; Yin, Ye; Zhao, Chen; Zheng, Yuanting; Wolfinger, Russell D; Shi, Tieliu; Malkas, Linda H; Berthold, Frank; Wang, Jun; Tong, Weida; Shi, Leming; Peng, Zhiyu; Fischer, Matthias

    2015-06-25

    Gene expression profiling is being widely applied in cancer research to identify biomarkers for clinical endpoint prediction. Since RNA-seq provides a powerful tool for transcriptome-based applications beyond the limitations of microarrays, we sought to systematically evaluate the performance of RNA-seq-based and microarray-based classifiers in this MAQC-III/SEQC study for clinical endpoint prediction using neuroblastoma as a model. We generate gene expression profiles from 498 primary neuroblastomas using both RNA-seq and 44 k microarrays. Characterization of the neuroblastoma transcriptome by RNA-seq reveals that more than 48,000 genes and 200,000 transcripts are being expressed in this malignancy. We also find that RNA-seq provides much more detailed information on specific transcript expression patterns in clinico-genetic neuroblastoma subgroups than microarrays. To systematically compare the power of RNA-seq and microarray-based models in predicting clinical endpoints, we divide the cohort randomly into training and validation sets and develop 360 predictive models on six clinical endpoints of varying predictability. Evaluation of factors potentially affecting model performances reveals that prediction accuracies are most strongly influenced by the nature of the clinical endpoint, whereas technological platforms (RNA-seq vs. microarrays), RNA-seq data analysis pipelines, and feature levels (gene vs. transcript vs. exon-junction level) do not significantly affect performances of the models. We demonstrate that RNA-seq outperforms microarrays in determining the transcriptomic characteristics of cancer, while RNA-seq and microarray-based models perform similarly in clinical endpoint prediction. Our findings may be valuable to guide future studies on the development of gene expression-based predictive models and their implementation in clinical practice.

  13. NF2 tumor suppressor gene: a comprehensive and efficient detection of somatic mutations by denaturing HPLC and microarray-CGH.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Szijan, Irene; Rochefort, Daniel; Bruder, Carl; Surace, Ezequiel; Machiavelli, Gloria; Dalamon, Viviana; Cotignola, Javier; Ferreiro, Veronica; Campero, Alvaro; Basso, Armando; Dumanski, Jan P; Rouleau, Guy A

    2003-01-01

    The NF2 tumor suppressor gene, located in chromosome 22q12, is involved in the development of multiple tumors of the nervous system, either associated with neurofibromatosis 2 or sporadic ones, mainly schwannomas and meningiomas. In order to evaluate the role of the NF2 gene in sporadic central nervous system (CNS) tumors, we analyzed NF2 mutations in 26 specimens: 14 meningiomas, 4 schwannomas, 4 metastases, and 4 other histopathological types of neoplasms. Denaturing high performance liquid chromatography (denaturing HPLC) and comparative genomic hybridization on a DNA microarray (microarray- CGH) were used as scanning methods for small mutations and gross rearrangements respectively. Small mutations were identified in six out of seventeen meningiomas and schwannomas, one mutation was novel. Large deletions were detected in six meningiomas. All mutations were predicted to result in truncated protein or in the absence of a large protein domain. No NF2 mutations were found in other histopathological types of CNS tumors. These results provide additional evidence that mutations in the NF2 gene play an important role in the development of sporadic meningiomas and schwannomas. Denaturing HPLC analysis of small mutations and microarray-CGH of large deletions are complementary, fast, and efficient methods for the detection of mutations in tumor tissues.

  14. Exploring matrix factorization techniques for significant genes identification of Alzheimer’s disease microarray gene expression data

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hu Xiaohua

    2011-07-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background The wide use of high-throughput DNA microarray technology provide an increasingly detailed view of human transcriptome from hundreds to thousands of genes. Although biomedical researchers typically design microarray experiments to explore specific biological contexts, the relationships between genes are hard to identified because they are complex and noisy high-dimensional data and are often hindered by low statistical power. The main challenge now is to extract valuable biological information from the colossal amount of data to gain insight into biological processes and the mechanisms of human disease. To overcome the challenge requires mathematical and computational methods that are versatile enough to capture the underlying biological features and simple enough to be applied efficiently to large datasets. Methods Unsupervised machine learning approaches provide new and efficient analysis of gene expression profiles. In our study, two unsupervised knowledge-based matrix factorization methods, independent component analysis (ICA and nonnegative matrix factorization (NMF are integrated to identify significant genes and related pathways in microarray gene expression dataset of Alzheimer’s disease. The advantage of these two approaches is they can be performed as a biclustering method by which genes and conditions can be clustered simultaneously. Furthermore, they can group genes into different categories for identifying related diagnostic pathways and regulatory networks. The difference between these two method lies in ICA assume statistical independence of the expression modes, while NMF need positivity constrains to generate localized gene expression profiles. Results In our work, we performed FastICA and non-smooth NMF methods on DNA microarray gene expression data of Alzheimer’s disease respectively. The simulation results shows that both of the methods can clearly classify severe AD samples from control samples, and

  15. Facilitating RNA structure prediction with microarrays.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kierzek, Elzbieta; Kierzek, Ryszard; Turner, Douglas H; Catrina, Irina E

    2006-01-17

    Determining RNA secondary structure is important for understanding structure-function relationships and identifying potential drug targets. This paper reports the use of microarrays with heptamer 2'-O-methyl oligoribonucleotides to probe the secondary structure of an RNA and thereby improve the prediction of that secondary structure. When experimental constraints from hybridization results are added to a free-energy minimization algorithm, the prediction of the secondary structure of Escherichia coli 5S rRNA improves from 27 to 92% of the known canonical base pairs. Optimization of buffer conditions for hybridization and application of 2'-O-methyl-2-thiouridine to enhance binding and improve discrimination between AU and GU pairs are also described. The results suggest that probing RNA with oligonucleotide microarrays can facilitate determination of secondary structure.

  16. The pathogenesis shared between abdominal aortic aneurysms and intracranial aneurysms: a microarray analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Wen; Li, Hao; Zhao, Zheng; Wang, Haoyuan; Zhang, Dong; Zhang, Yan; Lan, Qing; Wang, Jiangfei; Cao, Yong; Zhao, Jizong

    2018-04-01

    Abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAAs) and intracranial saccular aneurysms (IAs) are the most common types of aneurysms. This study was to investigate the common pathogenesis shared between these two kinds of aneurysms. We collected 12 IAs samples and 12 control arteries from the Beijing Tiantan Hospital and performed microarray analysis. In addition, we utilized the microarray datasets of IAs and AAAs from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO), in combination with our microarray results, to generate messenger RNA expression profiles for both AAAs and IAs in our study. Functional exploration and protein-protein interaction (PPI) analysis were performed. A total of 727 common genes were differentially expressed (404 was upregulated; 323 was downregulated) for both AAAs and IAs. The GO and pathway analyses showed that the common dysregulated genes were mainly enriched in vascular smooth muscle contraction, muscle contraction, immune response, defense response, cell activation, IL-6 signaling and chemokine signaling pathways, etc. The further protein-protein analysis identified 35 hub nodes, including TNF, IL6, MAPK13, and CCL5. These hub node genes were enriched in inflammatory response, positive regulation of IL-6 production, chemokine signaling pathway, and T/B cell receptor signaling pathway. Our study will gain new insight into the molecular mechanisms for the pathogenesis of both types of aneurysms and provide new therapeutic targets for the patients harboring AAAs and IAs.

  17. See what you eat--broad GMO screening with microarrays.

    Science.gov (United States)

    von Götz, Franz

    2010-03-01

    Despite the controversy of whether genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are beneficial or harmful for humans, animals, and/or ecosystems, the number of cultivated GMOs is increasing every year. Many countries and federations have implemented safety and surveillance systems for GMOs. Potent testing technologies need to be developed and implemented to monitor the increasing number of GMOs. First, these GMO tests need to be comprehensive, i.e., should detect all, or at least the most important, GMOs on the market. This type of GMO screening requires a high degree of parallel tests or multiplexing. To date, DNA microarrays have the highest number of multiplexing capabilities when nucleic acids are analyzed. This trend article focuses on the evolution of DNA microarrays for GMO testing. Over the last 7 years, combinations of multiplex PCR detection and microarray detection have been developed to qualitatively assess the presence of GMOs. One example is the commercially available DualChip GMO (Eppendorf, Germany; http://www.eppendorf-biochip.com), which is the only GMO screening system successfully validated in a multicenter study. With use of innovative amplification techniques, promising steps have recently been taken to make GMO detection with microarrays quantitative.

  18. Comparative analysis of methods for gene transcription profiling data derived from different microarray technologies in rat and mouse models of diabetes

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bihoreau Marie-Thérèse

    2009-02-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Microarray technologies are widely used to quantify the abundance of transcripts corresponding to thousands of genes. To maximise the robustness of transcriptome results, we have tested the performance and reproducibility of rat and mouse gene expression data obtained with Affymetrix, Illumina and Operon platforms. Results We present a thorough analysis of the degree of reproducibility provided by analysing the transcriptomic profile of the same animals of several experimental groups under different popular microarray technologies in different tissues. Concordant results from inter- and intra-platform comparisons were maximised by testing many popular computational methods for generating fold changes and significances and by only considering oligonucleotides giving high expression levels. The choice of Affymetrix signal extraction technique was shown to have the greatest effect on the concordance across platforms. In both species, when choosing optimal methods, the agreement between data generated on the Affymetrix and Illumina was excellent; this was verified using qRT-PCR on a selection of genes present on all platforms. Conclusion This study provides an extensive assessment of analytical methods best suited for processing data from different microarray technologies and can assist integration of technologically different gene expression datasets in biological systems.

  19. A Critical Perspective On Microarray Breast Cancer Gene Expression Profiling

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Sontrop, H.M.J.

    2015-01-01

    Microarrays offer biologists an exciting tool that allows the simultaneous assessment of gene expression levels for thousands of genes at once. At the time of their inception, microarrays were hailed as the new dawn in cancer biology and oncology practice with the hope that within a decade diseases

  20. Association Study between BDNF Gene Polymorphisms and Autism by Three-Dimensional Gel-Based Microarray

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zuhong Lu

    2009-06-01

    Full Text Available Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs are important markers which can be used in association studies searching for susceptible genes of complex diseases. High-throughput methods are needed for SNP genotyping in a large number of samples. In this study, we applied polyacrylamide gel-based microarray combined with dual-color hybridization for association study of four BDNF polymorphisms with autism. All the SNPs in both patients and controls could be analyzed quickly and correctly. Among four SNPs, only C270T polymorphism showed significant differences in the frequency of the allele (χ2 = 7.809, p = 0.005 and genotype (χ2 = 7.800, p = 0.020. In the haplotype association analysis, there was significant difference in global haplotype distribution between the groups (χ2 = 28.19,p = 3.44e-005. We suggest that BDNF has a possible role in the pathogenesis of autism. The study also show that the polyacrylamide gel-based microarray combined with dual-color hybridization is a rapid, simple and high-throughput method for SNPs genotyping, and can be used for association study of susceptible gene with disorders in large samples.

  1. Uropathogenic Escherichia coli virulence genes: invaluable approaches for designing DNA microarray probes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jahandeh, Nadia; Ranjbar, Reza; Behzadi, Payam; Behzadi, Elham

    2015-01-01

    The pathotypes of uropathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC) cause different types of urinary tract infections (UTIs). The presence of a wide range of virulence genes in UPEC enables us to design appropriate DNA microarray probes. These probes, which are used in DNA microarray technology, provide us with an accurate and rapid diagnosis and definitive treatment in association with UTIs caused by UPEC pathotypes. The main goal of this article is to introduce the UPEC virulence genes as invaluable approaches for designing DNA microarray probes. Main search engines such as Google Scholar and databases like NCBI were searched to find and study several original pieces of literature, review articles, and DNA gene sequences. In parallel with in silico studies, the experiences of the authors were helpful for selecting appropriate sources and writing this review article. There is a significant variety of virulence genes among UPEC strains. The DNA sequences of virulence genes are fabulous patterns for designing microarray probes. The location of virulence genes and their sequence lengths influence the quality of probes. The use of selected virulence genes for designing microarray probes gives us a wide range of choices from which the best probe candidates can be chosen. DNA microarray technology provides us with an accurate, rapid, cost-effective, sensitive, and specific molecular diagnostic method which is facilitated by designing microarray probes. Via these tools, we are able to have an accurate diagnosis and a definitive treatment regarding UTIs caused by UPEC pathotypes.

  2. A molecular analysis by gene expression profiling reveals Bik/NBK overexpression in sporadic breast tumor samples of Mexican females

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    García, Normand; Salamanca, Fabio; Astudillo-de la Vega, Horacio; Curiel-Quesada, Everardo; Alvarado, Isabel; Peñaloza, Rosenda; Arenas, Diego

    2005-01-01

    Breast cancer is one of the most frequent causes of death in Mexican women over 35 years of age. At molecular level, changes in many genetic networks have been reported as associated with this neoplasia. To analyze these changes, we determined gene expression profiles of tumors from Mexican women with breast cancer at different stages and compared these with those of normal breast tissue samples. 32 P-radiolabeled cDNA was synthesized by reverse transcription of mRNA from fresh sporadic breast tumor biopsies, as well as normal breast tissue. cDNA probes were hybridized to microarrays and expression levels registered using a phosphorimager. Expression levels of some genes were validated by real time RT-PCR and immunohistochemical assays. We identified two subgroups of tumors according to their expression profiles, probably related with cancer progression. Ten genes, unexpressed in normal tissue, were turned on in some tumors. We found consistent high expression of Bik gene in 14/15 tumors with predominant cytoplasmic distribution. Recently, the product of the Bik gene has been associated with tumoral reversion in different neoplasic cell lines, and was proposed as therapy to induce apoptosis in cancers, including breast tumors. Even though a relationship among genes, for example those from a particular pathway, can be observed through microarrays, this relationship might not be sufficient to assign a definitive role to Bik in development and progression of the neoplasia. The findings herein reported deserve further investigation

  3. Evaluation of sample preparation methods and optimization of nickel determination in vegetable tissues

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rodrigo Fernando dos Santos Salazar

    2011-02-01

    Full Text Available Nickel, although essential to plants, may be toxic to plants and animals. It is mainly assimilated by food ingestion. However, information about the average levels of elements (including Ni in edible vegetables from different regions is still scarce in Brazil. The objectives of this study were to: (a evaluate and optimize a method for preparation of vegetable tissue samples for Ni determination; (b optimize the analytical procedures for determination by Flame Atomic Absorption Spectrometry (FAAS and by Electrothermal Atomic Absorption (ETAAS in vegetable samples and (c determine the Ni concentration in vegetables consumed in the cities of Lorena and Taubaté in the Vale do Paraíba, State of São Paulo, Brazil. By means of the analytical technique for determination by ETAAS or FAAS, the results were validated by the test of analyte addition and recovery. The most viable method tested for quantification of this element was HClO4-HNO3 wet digestion. All samples but carrot tissue collected in Lorena contained Ni levels above the permitted by the Brazilian Ministry of Health. The most disturbing results, requiring more detailed studies, were the Ni concentrations measured in carrot samples from Taubaté, where levels were five times higher than permitted by Brazilian regulations.

  4. High quality protein microarray using in situ protein purification

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fleischmann Robert D

    2009-08-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background In the postgenomic era, high throughput protein expression and protein microarray technologies have progressed markedly permitting screening of therapeutic reagents and discovery of novel protein functions. Hexa-histidine is one of the most commonly used fusion tags for protein expression due to its small size and convenient purification via immobilized metal ion affinity chromatography (IMAC. This purification process has been adapted to the protein microarray format, but the quality of in situ His-tagged protein purification on slides has not been systematically evaluated. We established methods to determine the level of purification of such proteins on metal chelate-modified slide surfaces. Optimized in situ purification of His-tagged recombinant proteins has the potential to become the new gold standard for cost-effective generation of high-quality and high-density protein microarrays. Results Two slide surfaces were examined, chelated Cu2+ slides suspended on a polyethylene glycol (PEG coating and chelated Ni2+ slides immobilized on a support without PEG coating. Using PEG-coated chelated Cu2+ slides, consistently higher purities of recombinant proteins were measured. An optimized wash buffer (PBST composed of 10 mM phosphate buffer, 2.7 mM KCl, 140 mM NaCl and 0.05% Tween 20, pH 7.4, further improved protein purity levels. Using Escherichia coli cell lysates expressing 90 recombinant Streptococcus pneumoniae proteins, 73 proteins were successfully immobilized, and 66 proteins were in situ purified with greater than 90% purity. We identified several antigens among the in situ-purified proteins via assays with anti-S. pneumoniae rabbit antibodies and a human patient antiserum, as a demonstration project of large scale microarray-based immunoproteomics profiling. The methodology is compatible with higher throughput formats of in vivo protein expression, eliminates the need for resin-based purification and circumvents

  5. Impact of IQ on the diagnostic yield of chromosomal microarray in a community sample of adults with schizophrenia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lowther, Chelsea; Merico, Daniele; Costain, Gregory; Waserman, Jack; Boyd, Kerry; Noor, Abdul; Speevak, Marsha; Stavropoulos, Dimitri J; Wei, John; Lionel, Anath C; Marshall, Christian R; Scherer, Stephen W; Bassett, Anne S

    2017-11-30

    Schizophrenia is a severe psychiatric disorder associated with IQ deficits. Rare copy number variations (CNVs) have been established to play an important role in the etiology of schizophrenia. Several of the large rare CNVs associated with schizophrenia have been shown to negatively affect IQ in population-based controls where no major neuropsychiatric disorder is reported. The aim of this study was to examine the diagnostic yield of microarray testing and the functional impact of genome-wide rare CNVs in a community ascertained cohort of adults with schizophrenia and low (IQ. We recruited 546 adults of European ancestry with schizophrenia from six community psychiatric clinics in Canada. Each individual was assigned to the low or average IQ group based on standardized tests and/or educational attainment. We used rigorous methods to detect genome-wide rare CNVs from high-resolution microarray data. We compared the burden of rare CNVs classified as pathogenic or as a variant of unknown significance (VUS) between each of the IQ groups and the genome-wide burden and functional impact of rare CNVs after excluding individuals with a pathogenic CNV. There were 39/546 (7.1%; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 5.2-9.7%) schizophrenia participants with at least one pathogenic CNV detected, significantly more of whom were from the low IQ group (odds ratio [OR] = 5.01 [2.28-11.03], p = 0.0001). Secondary analyses revealed that individuals with schizophrenia and average IQ had the lowest yield of pathogenic CNVs (n = 9/325; 2.8%), followed by those with borderline intellectual functioning (n = 9/130; 6.9%), non-verbal learning disability (n = 6/29; 20.7%), and co-morbid intellectual disability (n = 15/62; 24.2%). There was no significant difference in the burden of rare CNVs classified as a VUS between any of the IQ subgroups. There was a significantly (p=0.002) increased burden of rare genic duplications in individuals with schizophrenia and low IQ

  6. Parallel characterization of anaerobic toluene- and ethylbenzene-degrading microbial consortia by PCR-denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis, RNA-DNA membrane hybridization, and DNA microarray technology

    Science.gov (United States)

    Koizumi, Yoshikazu; Kelly, John J.; Nakagawa, Tatsunori; Urakawa, Hidetoshi; El-Fantroussi, Said; Al-Muzaini, Saleh; Fukui, Manabu; Urushigawa, Yoshikuni; Stahl, David A.

    2002-01-01

    A mesophilic toluene-degrading consortium (TDC) and an ethylbenzene-degrading consortium (EDC) were established under sulfate-reducing conditions. These consortia were first characterized by denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) fingerprinting of PCR-amplified 16S rRNA gene fragments, followed by sequencing. The sequences of the major bands (T-1 and E-2) belonging to TDC and EDC, respectively, were affiliated with the family Desulfobacteriaceae. Another major band from EDC (E-1) was related to an uncultured non-sulfate-reducing soil bacterium. Oligonucleotide probes specific for the 16S rRNAs of target organisms corresponding to T-1, E-1, and E-2 were designed, and hybridization conditions were optimized for two analytical formats, membrane and DNA microarray hybridization. Both formats were used to characterize the TDC and EDC, and the results of both were consistent with DGGE analysis. In order to assess the utility of the microarray format for analysis of environmental samples, oil-contaminated sediments from the coast of Kuwait were analyzed. The DNA microarray successfully detected bacterial nucleic acids from these samples, but probes targeting specific groups of sulfate-reducing bacteria did not give positive signals. The results of this study demonstrate the limitations and the potential utility of DNA microarrays for microbial community analysis.

  7. Variance estimation in the analysis of microarray data

    KAUST Repository

    Wang, Yuedong

    2009-04-01

    Microarrays are one of the most widely used high throughput technologies. One of the main problems in the area is that conventional estimates of the variances that are required in the t-statistic and other statistics are unreliable owing to the small number of replications. Various methods have been proposed in the literature to overcome this lack of degrees of freedom problem. In this context, it is commonly observed that the variance increases proportionally with the intensity level, which has led many researchers to assume that the variance is a function of the mean. Here we concentrate on estimation of the variance as a function of an unknown mean in two models: the constant coefficient of variation model and the quadratic variance-mean model. Because the means are unknown and estimated with few degrees of freedom, naive methods that use the sample mean in place of the true mean are generally biased because of the errors-in-variables phenomenon. We propose three methods for overcoming this bias. The first two are variations on the theme of the so-called heteroscedastic simulation-extrapolation estimator, modified to estimate the variance function consistently. The third class of estimators is entirely different, being based on semiparametric information calculations. Simulations show the power of our methods and their lack of bias compared with the naive method that ignores the measurement error. The methodology is illustrated by using microarray data from leukaemia patients.

  8. CMOS Imaging of Temperature Effects on Pin-Printed Xerogel Sensor Microarrays.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lei Yao; Ka Yi Yung; Chodavarapu, Vamsy P; Bright, Frank V

    2011-04-01

    In this paper, we study the effect of temperature on the operation and performance of a xerogel-based sensor microarrays coupled to a complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) imager integrated circuit (IC) that images the photoluminescence response from the sensor microarray. The CMOS imager uses a 32 × 32 (1024 elements) array of active pixel sensors and each pixel includes a high-gain phototransistor to convert the detected optical signals into electrical currents. A correlated double sampling circuit and pixel address/digital control/signal integration circuit are also implemented on-chip. The CMOS imager data are read out as a serial coded signal. The sensor system uses a light-emitting diode to excite target analyte responsive organometallic luminophores doped within discrete xerogel-based sensor elements. As a proto type, we developed a 3 × 3 (9 elements) array of oxygen (O2) sensors. Each group of three sensor elements in the array (arranged in a column) is designed to provide a different and specific sensitivity to the target gaseous O2 concentration. This property of multiple sensitivities is achieved by using a mix of two O2 sensitive luminophores in each pin-printed xerogel sensor element. The CMOS imager is designed to be low noise and consumes a static power of 320.4 μW and an average dynamic power of 624.6 μW when operating at 100-Hz sampling frequency and 1.8-V dc power supply.

  9. A probe-based quantitative PCR assay for detecting Tetracapsuloides bryosalmonae in fish tissue and environmental DNA water samples

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hutchins, Patrick; Sepulveda, Adam; Martin, Renee; Hopper, Lacey

    2017-01-01

    A probe-based quantitative real-time PCR assay was developed to detect Tetracapsuloides bryosalmonae, which causes proliferative kidney disease in salmonid fish, in kidney tissue and environmental DNA (eDNA) water samples. The limits of detection and quantification were 7 and 100 DNA copies for calibration standards and T. bryosalmonae was reliably detected down to 100 copies in tissue and eDNA samples. The assay presented here is a highly sensitive and quantitative tool for detecting T. bryosalmonae with potential applications for tissue diagnostics and environmental detection.

  10. Geiger mode avalanche photodiodes for microarray systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Phelan, Don; Jackson, Carl; Redfern, R. Michael; Morrison, Alan P.; Mathewson, Alan

    2002-06-01

    New Geiger Mode Avalanche Photodiodes (GM-APD) have been designed and characterized specifically for use in microarray systems. Critical parameters such as excess reverse bias voltage, hold-off time and optimum operating temperature have been experimentally determined for these photon-counting devices. The photon detection probability, dark count rate and afterpulsing probability have been measured under different operating conditions. An active- quench circuit (AQC) is presented for operating these GM- APDs. This circuit is relatively simple, robust and has such benefits as reducing average power dissipation and afterpulsing. Arrays of these GM-APDs have already been designed and together with AQCs open up the possibility of having a solid-state microarray detector that enables parallel analysis on a single chip. Another advantage of these GM-APDs over current technology is their low voltage CMOS compatibility which could allow for the fabrication of an AQC on the same device. Small are detectors have already been employed in the time-resolved detection of fluorescence from labeled proteins. It is envisaged that operating these new GM-APDs with this active-quench circuit will have numerous applications for the detection of fluorescence in microarray systems.

  11. Prevalence of antimicrobial residues in eggs, tissue and feed samples in the State of Kuwait

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Alomirah, H.; Al-Mazeedi, H.; Al-Zenki, S.; Al-Faili, B.; Al-Foudary, M.; Abuzid, A.; Al-Sayed, I.; Sidhu, J.

    2007-01-01

    A total of 238 locally produced and imported eggs, tissue (meat, poultry and aquacultured fish) and feed and feedstuffs samples were collected at different seasonal periods from different farms and retail outlets in Kuwait and screened for presence of beta-lactams, tetracyclines, sulfonamides, streptomycin, macrolides and chloramphenicol (799 tests) using Charm II system. The results indicated that all of the 222 tests performed on table egg samples were negative for the analyzed antimicrobial residues indicating adherence to the guidelines for microbial use and withdrawal. Similarly, all of the 268 tests performed on tissue samples were negative for the analyzed antimicrobial residues except for chloramphenicol. These chloramphenicol positive samples, all of the 66 tests performed were negative for beta-lactams residues. Out of the 79 feed and feedstuff samples analyzed for teracyclines residues, broiler diet and concentrate samples (5%) were above the tetracyclines MRL (100 ppb.). On the other hands, results have revealed a widespread of sulfonamide residues and to a less extent chloramphenicol in tested feed and feedstuff samples. The Charm II system was reliable for rapid screening of antimicrobial residues. In general, results obtained in our study necessitate more effective and well planned national antimicrobial residues surveillance programs focusing particularly on samples imported from highly risk sources. (author)

  12. Advanced Data Mining of Leukemia Cells Micro-Arrays

    OpenAIRE

    Richard S. Segall; Ryan M. Pierce

    2009-01-01

    This paper provides continuation and extensions of previous research by Segall and Pierce (2009a) that discussed data mining for micro-array databases of Leukemia cells for primarily self-organized maps (SOM). As Segall and Pierce (2009a) and Segall and Pierce (2009b) the results of applying data mining are shown and discussed for the data categories of microarray databases of HL60, Jurkat, NB4 and U937 Leukemia cells that are also described in this article. First, a background section is pro...

  13. Generation of Antigen Microarrays to Screen for Autoantibodies in Heart Failure and Heart Transplantation.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Andrzej Chruscinski

    Full Text Available Autoantibodies directed against endogenous proteins including contractile proteins and endothelial antigens are frequently detected in patients with heart failure and after heart transplantation. There is evidence that these autoantibodies contribute to cardiac dysfunction and correlate with clinical outcomes. Currently, autoantibodies are detected in patient sera using individual ELISA assays (one for each antigen. Thus, screening for many individual autoantibodies is laborious and consumes a large amount of patient sample. To better capture the broad-scale antibody reactivities that occur in heart failure and post-transplant, we developed a custom antigen microarray technique that can simultaneously measure IgM and IgG reactivities against 64 unique antigens using just five microliters of patient serum. We first demonstrated that our antigen microarray technique displayed enhanced sensitivity to detect autoantibodies compared to the traditional ELISA method. We then piloted this technique using two sets of samples that were obtained at our institution. In the first retrospective study, we profiled pre-transplant sera from 24 heart failure patients who subsequently received heart transplants. We identified 8 antibody reactivities that were higher in patients who developed cellular rejection (2 or more episodes of grade 2R rejection in first year after transplant as defined by revised criteria from the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation compared with those who did have not have rejection episodes. In a second retrospective study with 31 patients, we identified 7 IgM reactivities that were higher in heart transplant recipients who developed antibody-mediated rejection (AMR compared with control recipients, and in time course studies, these reactivities appeared prior to overt graft dysfunction. In conclusion, we demonstrated that the autoantibody microarray technique outperforms traditional ELISAs as it uses less patient

  14. Novel insights into the unfolded protein response using Pichia pastoris specific DNA microarrays

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    Kreil David P

    2008-08-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background DNA Microarrays are regarded as a valuable tool for basic and applied research in microbiology. However, for many industrially important microorganisms the lack of commercially available microarrays still hampers physiological research. Exemplarily, our understanding of protein folding and secretion in the yeast Pichia pastoris is presently widely dependent on conclusions drawn from analogies to Saccharomyces cerevisiae. To close this gap for a yeast species employed for its high capacity to produce heterologous proteins, we developed full genome DNA microarrays for P. pastoris and analyzed the unfolded protein response (UPR in this yeast species, as compared to S. cerevisiae. Results By combining the partially annotated gene list of P. pastoris with de novo gene finding a list of putative open reading frames was generated for which an oligonucleotide probe set was designed using the probe design tool TherMODO (a thermodynamic model-based oligoset design optimizer. To evaluate the performance of the novel array design, microarrays carrying the oligo set were hybridized with samples from treatments with dithiothreitol (DTT or a strain overexpressing the UPR transcription factor HAC1, both compared with a wild type strain in normal medium as untreated control. DTT treatment was compared with literature data for S. cerevisiae, and revealed similarities, but also important differences between the two yeast species. Overexpression of HAC1, the most direct control for UPR genes, resulted in significant new understanding of this important regulatory pathway in P. pastoris, and generally in yeasts. Conclusion The differences observed between P. pastoris and S. cerevisiae underline the importance of DNA microarrays for industrial production strains. P. pastoris reacts to DTT treatment mainly by the regulation of genes related to chemical stimulus, electron transport and respiration, while the overexpression of HAC1 induced many genes

  15. Feature selection and classification of MAQC-II breast cancer and multiple myeloma microarray gene expression data.

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    Qingzhong Liu

    Full Text Available Microarray data has a high dimension of variables but available datasets usually have only a small number of samples, thereby making the study of such datasets interesting and challenging. In the task of analyzing microarray data for the purpose of, e.g., predicting gene-disease association, feature selection is very important because it provides a way to handle the high dimensionality by exploiting information redundancy induced by associations among genetic markers. Judicious feature selection in microarray data analysis can result in significant reduction of cost while maintaining or improving the classification or prediction accuracy of learning machines that are employed to sort out the datasets. In this paper, we propose a gene selection method called Recursive Feature Addition (RFA, which combines supervised learning and statistical similarity measures. We compare our method with the following gene selection methods: Support Vector Machine Recursive Feature Elimination (SVMRFE, Leave-One-Out Calculation Sequential Forward Selection (LOOCSFS, Gradient based Leave-one-out Gene Selection (GLGS. To evaluate the performance of these gene selection methods, we employ several popular learning classifiers on the MicroArray Quality Control phase II on predictive modeling (MAQC-II breast cancer dataset and the MAQC-II multiple myeloma dataset. Experimental results show that gene selection is strictly paired with learning classifier. Overall, our approach outperforms other compared methods. The biological functional analysis based on the MAQC-II breast cancer dataset convinced us to apply our method for phenotype prediction. Additionally, learning classifiers also play important roles in the classification of microarray data and our experimental results indicate that the Nearest Mean Scale Classifier (NMSC is a good choice due to its prediction reliability and its stability across the three performance measurements: Testing accuracy, MCC values, and

  16. Selection of reference genes for tissue/organ samples on day 3 fifth-instar larvae in silkworm, Bombyx mori.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Genhong; Chen, Yanfei; Zhang, Xiaoying; Bai, Bingchuan; Yan, Hao; Qin, Daoyuan; Xia, Qingyou

    2018-06-01

    The silkworm, Bombyx mori, is one of the world's most economically important insect. Surveying variations in gene expression among multiple tissue/organ samples will provide clues for gene function assignments and will be helpful for identifying genes related to economic traits or specific cellular processes. To ensure their accuracy, commonly used gene expression quantification methods require a set of stable reference genes for data normalization. In this study, 24 candidate reference genes were assessed in 10 tissue/organ samples of day 3 fifth-instar B. mori larvae using geNorm and NormFinder. The results revealed that, using the combination of the expression of BGIBMGA003186 and BGIBMGA008209 was the optimum choice for normalizing the expression data of the B. mori tissue/organ samples. The most stable gene, BGIBMGA003186, is recommended if just one reference gene is used. Moreover, the commonly used reference gene encoding cytoplasmic actin was the least appropriate reference gene of the samples investigated. The reliability of the selected reference genes was further confirmed by evaluating the expression profiles of two cathepsin genes. Our results may be useful for future studies involving the quantification of relative gene expression levels of different tissue/organ samples in B. mori. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  17. Identification of rat lung-specific microRNAs by microRNA microarray: valuable discoveries for the facilitation of lung research

    OpenAIRE

    Chintagari Narendranath; Chen Zhongming; Gou Deming; Weng Tingting; Wang Yang; Liu Lin

    2007-01-01

    Abstract Background An important mechanism for gene regulation utilizes small non-coding RNAs called microRNAs (miRNAs). These small RNAs play important roles in tissue development, cell differentiation and proliferation, lipid and fat metabolism, stem cells, exocytosis, diseases and cancers. To date, relatively little is known about functions of miRNAs in the lung except lung cancer. Results In this study, we utilized a rat miRNA microarray containing 216 miRNA probes, printed in-house, to d...

  18. Bisulfite-Based DNA Methylation Analysis from Recent and Archived Formalin-Fixed, Paraffin Embedded Colorectal Tissue Samples.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kalmár, Alexandra; Péterfia, Bálint; Hollósi, Péter; Wichmann, Barnabás; Bodor, András; Patai, Árpád V; Schöller, Andrea; Krenács, Tibor; Tulassay, Zsolt; Molnár, Béla

    2015-09-01

    We aimed to test the applicability of formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissue samples for gene specific DNA methylation analysis after using two commercially available DNA isolation kits. Genomic DNA was isolated from 5 colorectal adenocarcinomas and 5 normal adjacent tissues from "recent", collected within 6 months, and "archived", collected more than 5 years ago, FFPE tissues using either High Pure FFPET DNA Isolation kit or QIAamp DNA FFPE Tissue kit. DNA methylation analysis of MAL, SFRP1 and SFRP2 genes, known to be hypermethylated in CRC, was performed using methylation-sensitive high resolution melting (MS-HRM) analysis and sequencing. QIAamp (Q) method resulted in slightly higher recovery in archived (HP: 1.22 ± 3.18 μg DNA; Q: 3.00 ± 4.04 μg DNA) and significantly (p < 0.05) higher recovery in recent samples compared to High Pure method (HP) (HP: 4.10 ± 2.91 μg DNA; Q: 11.51 ± 7.50 μg DNA). Both OD260/280 and OD260/230 ratios were lower, but still high in the High Pure isolated archived and recent samples compared to those isolated with QIAamp. Identical DNA methylation patterns were detected for all 3 genes tested by MS-HRM with both isolation kits in the recent group. However, despite of higher DNA recovery in QIAamp slightly more reproducible methylation results were obtained from High Pure isolated archived samples. Sequencing confirmed DNA hypermethylation in CRCs. In conclusion, reproducible DNA methylation patterns were obtained from recent samples using both isolation kits. However, long term storage may affect the reliability of the results leading to moderate differences between the efficiency of isolation kits.

  19. A Reliable and Distributed LIMS for Efficient Management of the Microarray Experiment Environment

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    Jin Hee-Jeong

    2007-03-01

    Full Text Available A microarray is a principal technology in molecular biology. It generates thousands of expressions of genotypes at once. Typically, a microarray experiment contains many kinds of information, such as gene names, sequences, expression profiles, scanned images, and annotation. So, the organization and analysis of vast amounts of data are required. Microarray LIMS (Laboratory Information Management System provides data management, search, and basic analysis. Recently, microarray joint researches, such as the skeletal system disease and anti-cancer medicine have been widely conducted. This research requires data sharing among laboratories within the joint research group. In this paper, we introduce a web based microarray LIMS, SMILE (Small and solid MIcroarray Lims for Experimenters, especially for shared data management. The data sharing function of SMILE is based on Friend-to-Friend (F2F, which is based on anonymous P2P (Peer-to-Peer, in which people connect directly with their “friends”. It only allows its friends to exchange data directly using IP addresses or digital signatures you trust. In SMILE, there are two types of friends: “service provider”, which provides data, and “client”, which is provided with data. So, the service provider provides shared data only to its clients. SMILE provides useful functions for microarray experiments, such as variant data management, image analysis, normalization, system management, project schedule management, and shared data management. Moreover, it connections with two systems: ArrayMall for analyzing microarray images and GENAW for constructing a genetic network. SMILE is available on http://neobio.cs.pusan.ac.kr:8080/smile.

  20. Equilibrium Passive Sampling of POP in Lipid-Rich and Lean Fish Tissue: Quality Control Using Performance Reference Compounds.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rusina, Tatsiana P; Carlsson, Pernilla; Vrana, Branislav; Smedes, Foppe

    2017-10-03

    Passive sampling is widely used to measure levels of contaminants in various environmental matrices, including fish tissue. Equilibrium passive sampling (EPS) of persistent organic pollutants (POP) in fish tissue has been hitherto limited to application in lipid-rich tissue. We tested several exposure methods to extend EPS applicability to lean tissue. Thin-film polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) passive samplers were exposed statically to intact fillet and fish homogenate and dynamically by rolling with cut fillet cubes. The release of performance reference compounds (PRC) dosed to passive samplers prior to exposure was used to monitor the exchange process. The sampler-tissue exchange was isotropic, and PRC were shown to be good indicators of sampler-tissue equilibration status. The dynamic exposures demonstrated equilibrium attainment in less than 2 days for all three tested fish species, including lean fish containing 1% lipid. Lipid-based concentrations derived from EPS were in good agreement with lipid-normalized concentrations obtained using conventional solvent extraction. The developed in-tissue EPS method is robust and has potential for application in chemical monitoring of biota and bioaccumulation studies.