Evidence map›Paper›PMID 24608128›Full record

ArticlePloS one2014

Variation in RNA-Seq transcriptome profiles of peripheral whole blood from healthy individuals with and without globin depletion.

Heesun Shin, Casey P Shannon, Nick Fishbane, Jian Ruan, Mi Zhou, Robert Balshaw, Janet E Wilson-McManus, Raymond T Ng, Bruce M McManus, Scott J Tebbutt and 1 more

Open access · goldAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in PloS one, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 54 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
54citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
4.1field-weighted citation impact, top 5% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

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.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

54 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 94 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Cross-Study Meta-Analysis of Blood Transcriptomes in Type 2 Diabetes.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025
    Pooled it
  2. Trial
  3. Article
  4. Article
  5. Article
  6. Review
  7. Article
  8. Article
  9. Article
  10. Article
  11. Article
  12. Article
  13. Article
  14. Article
  15. Article
  16. Article
  17. Article
  18. Review
  19. Article
  20. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

11 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.

Heesun ShinNCE CECR PROOF Centre of Excellence, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada; UBC Department of Medicine (Division of Respiratory Medicine), University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada; UBC James Hogg Research Centre & Institute for HEART + LUNG Health, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
Casey P ShannonNCE CECR PROOF Centre of Excellence, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
Nick FishbaneNCE CECR PROOF Centre of Excellence, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada; UBC Department of Statistics, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
Jian RuanNCE CECR PROOF Centre of Excellence, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada; UBC James Hogg Research Centre & Institute for HEART + LUNG Health, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
Mi ZhouNCE CECR PROOF Centre of Excellence, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
Robert BalshawNCE CECR PROOF Centre of Excellence, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada; UBC Department of Statistics, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
Janet E Wilson-McManusNCE CECR PROOF Centre of Excellence, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
Raymond T NgNCE CECR PROOF Centre of Excellence, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada; UBC Department of Computer Science, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
Bruce M McManusNCE CECR PROOF Centre of Excellence, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada; UBC Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada; UBC James Hogg Research Centre & Institute for HEART + LUNG Health, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
Scott J TebbuttNCE CECR PROOF Centre of Excellence, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada; UBC Department of Medicine (Division of Respiratory Medicine), University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada; UBC James Hogg Research Centre & Institute for HEART + LUNG Health, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
PROOF Centre of Excellence Team
Prevention of Organ Failure · CAUniversity of British Columbia · CA

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundThe molecular profile of circulating blood can reflect physiological and pathological events occurring in other tissues and organs of the body and delivers a comprehensive view of the status of the immune system. Blood has been useful in studying the pathobiology of many diseases. It is accessible and easily collected making it ideally suited to the development of diagnostic biomarker tests. The blood transcriptome has a high complement of globin RNA that could potentially saturate next-generation sequencing platforms, masking lower abundance transcripts. Methods to deplete globin mRNA are available, but their effect has not been comprehensively studied in peripheral whole blood RNA-Seq data. In this study we aimed to assess technical variability associated with globin depletion in addition to assessing general technical variability in RNA-Seq from whole blood derived samples.

resultsWe compared technical and biological replicates having undergone globin depletion or not and found that the experimental globin depletion protocol employed removed approximately 80% of globin transcripts, improved the correlation of technical replicates, allowed for reliable detection of thousands of additional transcripts and generally increased transcript abundance measures. Differential expression analysis revealed thousands of genes significantly up-regulated as a result of globin depletion. In addition, globin depletion resulted in the down-regulation of genes involved in both iron and zinc metal ion bonding.

conclusionsGlobin depletion appears to meaningfully improve the quality of peripheral whole blood RNA-Seq data, and may improve our ability to detect true biological variation. Some concerns remain, however. Key amongst them the significant reduction in RNA yields following globin depletion. More generally, our investigation of technical and biological variation with and without globin depletion finds that high-throughput sequencing by RNA-Seq is highly reproducible within a large dynamic range of detection and provides an accurate estimation of RNA concentration in peripheral whole blood. High-throughput sequencing is thus a promising technology for whole blood transcriptomics and biomarker discovery.

Indexed as

TranscriptomeBlood ProteinsFemaleGene Expression ProfilingGene Expression RegulationGlobinsHigh-Throughput Nucleotide SequencingHumansMaleMolecular Sequence AnnotationReproducibility of ResultsRNA, MessengerSensitivity and SpecificityBlood ProteinsGlobinsRNA, Messenger

Identifiers

PMID24608128
PMCPMC3946641
OpenAlexW2033710859

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

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.