Analysis of gene expression profiles in cholesteatoma using oligonucleotide microarray

Conclusion. Microarray analysis may be a useful tool to identify some candidate genes related to the pathogenesis of cholesteatoma. Objective. The aim of this study was to investigate gene expression profiles in human cholesteatoma using an oligonucleotide chip including 10 115 genes. Materials and methods. Gene expression from five cholesteatoma matrices and five normal retroauricular skins was analyzed by Macrogen human oligo-chip and the expression levels of some selected genes were also confirmed by RT-PCR. Results. In all, 1327 up-regulated or 767 down-regulated genes that were over 3 times more prominent in cholesteatoma than in skin were identified by 5 samples of microarray data. Among these up-regulated or down-regulated genes in cholesteatoma, 291 genes were identified in 3 samples or more out of 5 samples as up-regulated expression more than threefold in density and 191 genes were down-regulated more than threefold in density. RT-PCR of 21 selected genes revealed that those expression levels were higher in choleasteatoma than retroauricular skin.