Comparison of microarray and RNA-Seq analysis of mRNA expression in dermal mesenchymal stem cells

We characterized mRNA expression profiles in normal and psoriatic human dermal mesenchymal stem cells (DMSCs) to provide a reference for future investigation of differential gene expression in DMSCs. Microarray and RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq) analyses both identified 23 differentially expressed genes using both platforms. The results showed comparable upregulation or downregulation for 14/23 genes using either platform and a 100 % coincidence rate was found by real-time PCR. For all of the differentially expressed genes that were verified by real-time PCR, the coincidence rate for RNA-Seq and real-time PCR was significantly higher than that for microarray analysis and real-time PCR (83.3 vs. 37.5 %, P < 0.0001). Furthermore, RNA-Seq revealed the presence of over 2300 novel transcription tags. Relative to microarray analysis, RNA-Seq is more accurate in identifying differentially expressed genes in DMSCs.