PRELIMINARY SCREENING OF GENE EXPRESSION IN SCHIZOPHRENIA BY cDNAMICROARRAY

examine expression levels for large numbers of genes simultaneously, and may be

applied to identify genes involved in schizophrenia.  A microarray with

1127 brain-relevant genes was used to screen relative gene expression in total

RNA pools (Barrett et al, 2001).  Pooling of tissue samples was employed,

as a strategy to detect changes in gene expression that are consistently found

across individual cases of schizophrenia.  The brain regions examined by

microarray were prefrontal cortex, cerebellum, and medial temporal gyrus in 8

pools of patients with schizophrenia and 8 matching control pools (Vawter et.

al, 2001; Vawter et al. in press).  The data has been analyzed by comparing

normalized ratios for each gene in schizophrenia pools to matched control pools

using Cyber-T (Long, et al, 2001).  An analysis combining gene expression

in all brain regions was conducted to examine possible global gene differences

between schizophrenia and control pools.  The results of the regional and

global analysis will be presented.  These results are subject to

limitations based on variations inherent to human subjects and tissue samples,

possible effects of neuroleptic treatment, and the requirement for verification

using independent techniques.  We are currently examining individual gene