Observations of extensive gene expression differences in the cerebellum and potential relevance to Alzheimer’s disease

Chappell, Sally; Patel, Tulsi; Guetta-Baranes, Tamar; Sang, Fei; Francis, Paul T.; Morgan, Kevin; Brookes, Keeley J.

Abstract

Objectives

In order to determine how gene expression is altered in disease it is of fundamental importance that the global distribution of gene expression levels across the disease-free brain are understood and how differences between tissue types might inform tissue choice for investigation of altered expression in disease state. The aim of this pilot project was to use RNA-sequencing to investigate gene expression differences between five general areas of post-mortem human brain (frontal, temporal, occipital, parietal and cerebellum), and in particular changes in gene expression in the cerebellum compared to cortex regions for genes relevant to Alzheimer’s disease, as the cerebellum is largely preserved from disease pathology and could be an area of interest for neuroprotective pathways.

Results

General gene expression profiles were found to be similar between cortical regions of the brain, however the cerebellum presented a distinct expression profile. Focused exploration of gene expression for genes associated with Alzheimer’s disease suggest that those involved in the immunity pathway show little expression in the brain. Furthermore some Alzheimer’s disease associated genes display significantly different expression in the cerebellum compared with other brain regions, which might indicate potential neuroprotective measures.

Citation

Chappell, S., Patel, T., Guetta-Baranes, T., Sang, F., Francis, P. T., Morgan, K., & Brookes, K. J. (2018). Observations of extensive gene expression differences in the cerebellum and potential relevance to Alzheimer’s disease. BMC Research Notes, 11(1), https://doi.org/10.1186/s13104-018-3732-8

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Aug 24, 2018
• Online Publication Date: Sep 4, 2018
• Publication Date: Dec 1, 2018
• Deposit Date: Nov 22, 2018
• Publicly Available Date: Nov 22, 2018
• Journal: BMC Research Notes
• Electronic ISSN: 1756-0500
• Publisher: Springer Verlag
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 11
• Issue: 1
• Article Number: 646
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s13104-018-3732-8
• Keywords: RNA-sequence; Human brain; Cerebellum; Alzheimer’s disease
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1299902
• Publisher URL: https://bmcresnotes.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13104-018-3732-8