Gene Activity Quantification in Real Time RT-PCR.

Real time RT-PCR methods have some quantification problems which impose certain restrictions upon the application of more sophisticated statistical methods as well as the processing of large data obtained at different experimental conditions. The aim of this work was to simplify the quantification of gene expression and statistical characteristics, preserving the main features earlier proposed and well-established methods, and indicate the route of unification of data obtained with different parameters. We have introduced the following notions and relations: the activity weight, the common activity weight, the gene activity, the relative gene activity as a difference between gene and reference activities, the transformation between gene activities with different references as well as with different thresholds. The standard activity may be used as initial data for multivariate statistical analysis. The data of gene expression of neuronal cell line SH-SY5Y during the process of differentiation has been used in the java-based desktop application developed upon this principals.