Utilizzo di microarray di DNA per analizzare l'espressione genica

The cDNA microarray or DNA-chip technique allows profiling gene expression pattern of tens of thousands of genes in a single experiment. Applications of the microarrays have been described for genetic and gene expression analysis at the whole genome level. This assay can be easily used to study gene expression patterns in complex diseases, like inflammatory diseases (1), and human cancers (2,3). Moreover monitoring a large number of genes may allow a reliable prognostic prediction that could not be made when the analysis is based on any single gene. As a result, measurements with more individuals and more genes will be needed to identify strong expression markers that are predictive of clinical outcome. Here we describe general principles of cDNA arrays, including fabrication, image and data extraction.