Genomic approaches to elucidating the pathophysiology of renal diseases

The physiological and pathological processes of the kidney as a whole can now be analyzed with a molecular precision at a genomic-scale. Using massively parallel cDNA microarray technology, the mRNA expression of thousands of genes can be quantified simultaneously. The advantages of microarray analyses include the ability to examine the interaction of several genes or the entire genome in a single experiment. Bioinformatics approaches such as data mining through mathematical condensation of the massive gene expression profiles are essential for elucidating molecular and biological logic underlying gene expression programs. Genes that encode similar protein components are often coordinately regulated. Recent application of gene expression profiling to the normal human renal cortical tissue, experimental in vitro and in vivo models has shown that cellular activation is accompanied by changes of hundreds of genes in parallel. The databases of gene expression emerging from these studies will be used to interpret the pathological changes in gene expression that accompany a variety of human renal diseases.