PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Yi-Hsuan Tsai
AU  - Joel S. Parker
AU  - Ivana V. Yang
AU  - Samir N.P. Kelada
TI  - Meta-analysis of airway epithelium gene expression in asthma
AID  - 10.1183/13993003.01962-2017
DP  - 2018 May 01
TA  - European Respiratory Journal
PG  - 1701962
VI  - 51
IP  - 5
4099  - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/51/5/1701962.short
4100  - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/51/5/1701962.full
SO  - Eur Respir J2018 May 01; 51
AB  - Differential gene expression in the airway epithelium of patients with asthma versus 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. These studies comprised 355 cases and 193 controls and involved sampling 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 1273 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 is consistently dysregulated in asthma, that links to known and novel biological pathways, and that will inform asthma subtype identification.More than 1200 genes are consistently affected in the airway epithelium of patients with asthma http://ow.ly/vxUt30k0tjf