Comparative Analysis of Gene Expression Profiles of Human Dental Fluorosis and Kashin-Beck Disease

To explore the pathologies of Kashin-Beck disease (KBD) and KBD accompanied with dental fluorosis (DF), we conducted a comparative analysis of gene expression profiles. 12 subjects were recruited, including 4 KBD patients, 4 patients with KBD and DF and 4 healthy subjects. Genome-wide expression profiles from their peripheral blood mononuclear cells were evaluated by customized oligonucleotide microarray. R programming software was used for the microarray data analysis followed by functional enrichment analysis through KOBAS. Several potential biomarkers were identified, and quantitative real-time reverse transcription–polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) was used for their validation. In this study, 28 genes and 8 genes were found to be up- and down-regulated respectively in KBD patients compared with health subjects. In patients with KBD and DF, we obtained 10 up-regulated and 3 down-regulated genes compared with health controls. Strikingly, no differential expression gene (DEG) was identified between the two groups of patients. A total of 10 overlaps (DUSP2, KLRF1, SRP19, KLRC3, CD69, SIK1, ITGA4, ID3, HSPA1A, GPR18) were obtained between DEGs of patients with KBD and patients with KBD and DF. They play important roles in metabolism, differentiation, apoptosis and bone-development. The relative abundance of 8 DEGs, i.e. FCRL6, KLRC3, CXCR4, CD93, CLK1, GPR18, SRP19 and KLRF1, were further confirmed by qRT-PCR analysis.