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Gene expression in labor

A Research Article, Perspective and e-Letter all published today discuss the use of microarrays to discover genes involved in childbirth. The three papers highlight the complexity of such gene expression analyses but also how crucial it is to make original data available for reanalysis.

In the Research Article (Labor-Associated Gene Expression in the Human Uterine Fundus, Lower Segment, and Cervix), Radek Bukowski and colleagues from the University of Texas, Galveston used microarrays to assess labor-associated gene expression profiles in the top, lower part and cervix of the uterus and describe networks of co-regulated and co-expressed genes. In an accompanying Perspective (Insights into the Physiology of Childbirth Using Transcriptomics), Roberto Romero from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development -- one of the peer reviewers of the paper -- and colleagues discuss the study further and reanalyze the data of Bukowski and colleagues, using different statistical methods and coming to some different conclusions about the changes in gene expression. Finally, in an e-Letter Bukowski and colleagues respond to Romero and colleagues, acknowledging that "Such discussion is mandatory if results of scientific techniques such as gene array are to be correctly interpreted and used as the basi
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Contact: Andrew Hyde
ahyde@plos.org
44-122-346-3330
Public Library of Science
12-Jun-2006