| Gene expression analysis is a field that has been given considerable study and has shown potential in the development of diagnosis and treatment methods based on an individual's genotype. As a result of this, various microarray tools have been developed that attempt to quantify transcript levels. This study focuses on dChip and Affymetrix Microarray Suite tools as a as means of expression analysis. DNA-Chip Analyzer (dChip) is a software package implementing model-based expression indexes (MBEI). Affymetrix Microarray Suite Software (MAS) on the other hand uses average difference (MAS4) or signal (MAS5) as expression values.; In this thesis, results are compared between dChip and Affymetrix microarray analysis tools by considering various genes implicated in Type II Diabetes, namely NRF-1 and PGC1-alpha and PGC1-beta which are co-activators of NRF-1. Reduced expression of these genes has been associated with insulin resistance and diabetes mellitus. dChip results are also analyzed and other novel genes are implicated in pathways and cellular processes that are related to insulin uptake and release and are differentially expressed in different subject groups. |
