Screening of differentially expressed genes related to ischemic stroke and functional analysis with DNA microarray.

BACKGROUND: Prognostic blood biomarkers in the setting of acute is - chemic stroke have become increasingly rele - vant for risk stratification, monitoring disease and response to therapies, developing targets for neuroprotective treatment and as surrogate end points for treatment trials. AIM: We aim to find the feature genes which can accurately detect acute ischemic stroke and perform function analysis of these crucial genes in peripheral blood mononuclear cells. MATERIALS AND METHODS : The gene ex - pression profile GSE22255 was downloaded from Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) data - base which includes 20 ischemic stroke pa - tients and 20 controls. The differentially ex - pressed genes between patients and controls samples were identified with packages in R lan - guage. The selected differentially expressed genes were further analyzed using bioinformat - ics methods. Software STRING (Search Tool for the Retrieval of Interacting Genes) was used to establish co-expression network. GOTM (Gener - al Ocean Turbulence Model) software was used to obtain differentially expressed gene enriched modules. The functions of genes in modules were analyzed by using software GeneCodis. RESULTS : A total of 37 genes were identified as differentially expressed genes by comparing peripheral blood mononuclear cells gene ex - pression of ischemic stroke patients and 20 con - trols. A co-expression network was constructed within 30 differentially expressed genes, among which gene interleukin-8 (IL-8) and tumor necro - sis factor (TNF) showed the highest node de - gree. Genes in the module containing IL-8 and TNF were significantly enriched in 6 biological functions, and the most significant function was respond to stimulation. CONCLUSIONS: Our results highlight that genes IL-8 andTNF have close relationship with acute ischemic stroke, and the expression pat - terns of these genes may be valid targets for new medications able to modify the ischemic stroke process.