Transcriptome profiling reveals association of peripheral adipose tissue pathology with type-2 diabetes in Asian Indians

ABSTRACTType 2 diabetes (T2D) is a complex disease with an elusive link between its molecular aetiology and clinical presentation. Although, the role of visceral adipose tissue in insulin-resistance and T2D is known, limited information is available on the role of peripheral-subcutaneous adipose tissue especially in Asian Indians. In this microarray-based study of diabetic and normal glucose tolerant Asian Indians, we generated the transcriptome of their thigh adipose tissue and analyzed differentially expressed genes (DEGs) using weighted gene co-expression network analysis; further we identified perturbed pathways implicated by these DEGs in relevant co-expression modules. We also attempted to link these pathways with known aspects of T2D pathophysiology in terms of their association with some of their intermediate traits, namely; adipocyte size, HOMA-B, HOMA-R, Hb1Ac, insulin, glucose-level, TNF-α, IL-6, VLDLs, LDLs, HDLs, and NEFAs. It was observed that several modules of co-expressed genes show an as...