ArticleGenome biology2005
Systematic analysis of gene expression in human brains before and after death.
Article in Genome biology, 2005. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed, 37 citations in OpenAlex.
- A study of gene expression in the living human brain.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Article
- SkeletAge: Transcriptomics-based Aging Clock Identifies 26 New Targets in Skeletal Muscle Aging.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
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- Gender effects on autism spectrum disorder: a multi-site resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging study of transcriptome-neuroimaging.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2023Article
- Phosphoinositides: Regulators of Nervous System Function in Health and Disease.Frontiers in molecular neuroscience · 2019Review
- Variation among intact tissue samples reveals the core transcriptional features of human CNS cell classes.Nature neuroscience · 2018Article
- Imprinted genes and imprinting control regions show predominant intermediate methylation in adult somatic tissues.Epigenomics · 2016Article
- A standardized autopsy procurement allows for the comprehensive study of DIPG biology.Oncotarget · 2015Article
- Strabismus genetics across a spectrum of eye misalignment disorders.Clinical genetics · 2014Review
- Postmortem mRNA expression patterns in left ventricular myocardial tissues and their implications for forensic diagnosis of sudden cardiac death.Molecules and cells · 2014Article
- Gene expression in the Parkinson's disease brain.Brain research bulletin · 2012Review
- Identification of transcriptional regulatory networks specific to pilocytic astrocytoma.BMC medical genomics · 2011Article
- Array-based gene expression, CGH and tissue data defines a 12q24 gain in neuroblastic tumors with prognostic implication.BMC cancer · 2010Article
- Expression profiling of repetitive elements by melting temperature analysis: variation in HERV-W gag expression across human individuals and tissues.BMC genomics · 2009Article
- IGFBP3 colocalizes with and regulates hypocretin (orexin).PloS one · 2009Article
- Effect of RNA quality on transcript intensity levels in microarray analysis of human post-mortem brain tissues.BMC genomics · 2008Article
- Autism brain tissue banking.Brain pathology (Zurich, Switzerland) · 2007Review
- Whole genome expression profiling reveals a significant role for immune function in human abdominal aortic aneurysms.BMC genomics · 2007Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
9 authors at 6 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundNumerous studies have employed microarray techniques to study changes in gene expression in connection with human disease, aging and evolution. The vast majority of human samples available for research are obtained from deceased individuals. This raises questions about how well gene expression patterns in such samples reflect those of living individuals.
resultsHere, we compare gene expression patterns in two human brain regions in postmortem samples and in material collected during surgical intervention. We find that death induces significant expression changes in more than 10% of all expressed genes. These changes are non-randomly distributed with respect to their function. Moreover, we observe similar expression changes due to death in two distinct brain regions. Consequently, the pattern of gene expression differences between the two brain regions is largely unaffected by death, although the magnitude of differences is reduced by 50% in postmortem samples. Furthermore, death-induced changes do not contribute significantly to gene expression variation among postmortem human brain samples.
conclusionWe conclude that postmortem human brain samples are suitable for investigating gene expression patterns in humans, but that caution is warranted in interpreting results for individual genes.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.