%0 Journal Article %A Yi-Hsuan Tsai %A Joel S. Parker %A Ivana V. Yang %A Samir N. P. Kelada %T Meta-Analysis of Airway Epithelia Gene Expression in Asthma %D 2018 %R 10.1183/13993003.01962-2017 %J European Respiratory Journal %P 1701962 %X Differential gene expression in the airway epithelium of asthmatics vs. controls has been reported in several studies. However, there is no consensus on which genes are reproducibly affected in asthma. We sought to identify a consensus list of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) using a meta-analysis approach.We identified eight studies with data that met defined inclusion criteria. In total, these studies were comprised of 355 cases and 193 controls and involved sampling of either bronchial or nasal epithelium. We conducted study-level analyses, followed by a meta-analysis. Likewise, we applied a meta-analysis framework to the results of study-level pathway enrichment.We identified 1,273 DEGs, 431 of which had not been identified in previous studies. 450 DEGs exhibited large effect sizes and were robust to study population differences in age, sex, race/ethnicity, medication use, smoking status, and exacerbations. The magnitude of differential expression of these 450 genes was highly similar in bronchial and nasal airway epithelia. Meta-analysis of pathway enrichment revealed a number of consistently dysregulated biological pathways, including putative transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulators.In total, we identified a set of genes that are consistently dysregulated in asthma, link to known and novel biological pathways, and will inform asthma sub-type identification.More than 1,200 genes are consistently affected in the airway epithelium of asthmaticsFootnotesThis manuscript has recently been accepted for publication in the European Respiratory Journal. It is published here in its accepted form prior to copyediting and typesetting by our production team. After these production processes are complete and the authors have approved the resulting proofs, the article will move to the latest issue of the ERJ online. Please open or download the PDF to view this article.Conflict of interest: Yi-Hsuan TsaiConflict of interest: Joel S. ParkerConflict of interest: Samir N. P. KeladaConflict of interest: Ivana V. Yang %U https://erj.ersjournals.com/content/erj/early/2018/04/05/13993003.01962-2017.full.pdf