Conclusion: Microarray analysis may be a useful tool to identify some candidate genes related to the pathogenesis of cholesteatoma.
Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate gene expression profiles in human cholesteatoma using an oligonucleotide chip including 10,115 genes.
Materials and methods: Gene expression from five cholesteatoma matrices and five normal retroauricular skins was analyzed by Macrogen human oligo-chip and the expression levels of some selected genes were also confirmed by RT-PCR.
Results: In all, 1327 up-regulated or 767 down-regulated genes that were over 3 times more prominent in cholesteatoma than in skin were identified by 5 samples of microarray data. Among these up-regulated or down-regulated genes in cholesteatoma, 291 genes were identified in 3 samples or more out of 5 samples as up-regulated expression more than threefold in density and 191 genes were down-regulated more than threefold in density. RT-PCR of 21 selected genes revealed that those expression levels were higher in choleasteatoma than retroauricular skin.