Screening of Key Genes Associated with Ischemic Stroke via Microarray Data

Objective: To promote understandings about the pathogenesis of ischemic stroke (IS) through mining key genes, functions and pathways with microarray technology. Methods: Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in blood between patients with IS and healthy people were screened out through comparing microarray data obtained from Gene Expression Omnibus. Over-represented functions in DEGs were revealed by Gene Ontology (GO) enrichment analysis. Interaction network was constructed for the top 24 DEGs with information from Human protein Reference Database (HpRD). Relevant microRNAs (miRNAs) were retrieved from three databases: TargetScan, miRBase and miRanda. Results: A total of 503 DEGs were obtained. Functional enrichment analysis showed that immune response, signaling pathways and apoptosis were significantly over-represented. Six key genes with big degree, betweenness and clustering coefficient were then revealed, which might play important roles in the development of IS. In addition, 57 differentially expressed miRNAs targeting the 6 genes were retrieved. Conclusions: Our study provides insights into the pathogenesis of IS and potential targets to treat the disease.