Wednesday, August 03, 2005

Gene expression matters, part n....   posted by Razib @ 8/03/2005 07:14:00 PM
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Variation in gene expression profiles of peripheral blood mononuclear cells from healthy volunteers:

In the study described here, microarrays were employed to analyse gene transcription in peripheral blood mononuclear cells prepared from serial blood samples that had been obtained, at weekly intervals, from apparently healthy human volunteers. Transcript levels for the majority of genes examined were found to be remarkably consistent within samples from a single donor. Conversely, marked differences were observed in samples obtained from different donors. Genes that exhibited differential expression dependent on sex, age, body mass index and the presence of varying proportions of different leucocyte subsets were identified. These results emphasise the important contributions of genetic and environmental factors, as well as varying representation of different cell types, in determining the overall gene transcriptional profiles of human tissues....

SNPs, microsatellites and epigenetics, we truly are living in the biological age of assume-the-cow-is-a-sphere...but the sphere is puckering and evincing some more interesting morphological features of late. Here is the press release by the researchers who were involved in the study, while this article emphasizes the ramifications as regards nutrition and individually tailored diets.

Related: Expression and sequence.