Abstract

GENE EXPRESSION IN NEUROPSYCHIATRIC DISORDERS AND CONTROLS

Marquis P. Vawter; Simon Evans; Prabha V. Choudary; Hiroaki Tomita; David Cox; Edward G. Jones; Huda Akil; Stanley J. Watson; William E. Bunney
American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP) 40th Annual Meeting. 2001.

Abstract

Microarray technology is currently a hot topic in neuroscience and the use of microarray for understanding neural function is rapidly expanding. Microarrays present a means for generating a profile of literally thousands of genes that are expressed in a tissue sample, cell line, or other biological material. We have conducted a microarray study of control brain samples that were screened for an absence of a family history of schizophrenia and affective disorders. Our initial studies have focused on gender differences in brain expression in control subjects since there are gender differences in the prevalence of affective disorders. We have surveyed expression of 12,600 genes in human brain by using Affymetrix U95A oligonucleotide chips. Data will be presented from our microarray findings for gender differences in gene expression and validation of the differentially expressed genes by TaqMan RT-PCR. We will compare our gender microarray studies of gene expression patterns to microarray studies of schizophrenia and affective disorders.