Comparative analysis of gene expression profiles between the normal human cartilage and the one with endemic osteoarthritis

To investigate the differences in gene expression profiles of adult articular cartilage with endemic osteoarthritis (OA), Kashin-Beck disease (KBD), and the same regions in the normal joint.The messenger RNA expression profiles of articular cartilage with KBD diagnosed according to "Diagnosing Criteria of Kashin-Beck Disease in China" were compared with the normal cartilage. Total RNA isolated separately from four pairs of the KBD and normal cartilage samples were evaluated by oligonucleotide microarray analysis. The microarray data were confirmed by quantitative real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) amplification and were compared with previously published experiments.About 4100 transcripts, which corresponded to 35% of the expressed transcripts, showed >or=twofold differences in expression between the cartilage tissues in pairs. Approximately 2% of the expressed genes (79, 55 genes expressed in KBD>normal; 24 genes expressed in KBD更多