deciphering normal blood gene expression variation—the nowac postgenome study解密正常的血液基因表达变化nowac后基因组研究.pdfVIP

Deciphering Normal Blood Gene Expression Variation— The NOWAC Postgenome Study 1 1 2 3 4,5 Vanessa Dumeaux *, Karina S. Olsen , Gregory Nuel , Ruth H. Paulssen , Anne-Lise Børresen-Dale , Eiliv Lund1 1 Institute of Community Medicine, University of Tromsø, Tromsø, Norway, 2 Department of Applied Mathematics, University of Paris Descartes, Paris, France, 3 Institute of Clinical Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tromsø, Tromsø, Norway, 4 Department of Genetics, Institute for Cancer Research, Oslo University Hospital Radiumhospitalet, Oslo, Norway, 5 Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway Abstract There is growing evidence that gene expression profiling of peripheral blood cells is a valuable tool for assessing gene signatures related to exposure, drug-response, or disease. However, the true promise of this approach can not be estimated until the scientific community has robust baseline data describing variation in gene expression patterns in normal individuals. Using a large representative sample set of postmenopausal women (N = 286) in the Norwegian Women and Cancer (NOWAC) postgenome study, we investigated variability of whole blood gene expression in the general population. In particular, we examined changes in blood gene expression caused by technical variability, normal inter-individual differences, and exposure variables at proportions and levels relevant to real-life situations. We observe that the overall changes in gene expression are subtle, implying the need for careful analytic approaches of the data. In particular, technical variability