In the field of gene expression analysis, methods of integrating multiple gene expression profiles are still being developed and the existing methods have scope for improvement. The previously proposed tensor decomposition-based unsupervised feature extraction method was improved by introducing standard deviation optimization. The improved method was applied to perform an integrated analysis of three tissue-specific gene expression profiles (namely, adipose, muscle, and liver) for diabetes mellitus, and the results showed that it can detect diseases that are associated with diabetes (e.g., neurodegenerative diseases) but that cannot be predicted by individual tissue expression analyses using state-of-the-art methods. Although the selected genes differed from those identified by the individual tissue analyses, the selected genes are known to be expressed in all three tissues. Thus, compared with individual tissue analyses, an integrated analysis can provide more in-depth data and identify additional factors, namely, the association with other diseases.
Keywords: diabetes mellitus; gene expression; neurodegenerative diseases; tensor decomposition.