RNA profiling of MS brain tissues

Recently, the introduction of RNA profiling using microarray technology has helped to elucidate gene expression changes in diseased tissue samples from postmortem human brains. Especially, in the field of multiple sclerosis (MS) research, microarray-based RNA profiling has been applied in the hope to identify disease specific alterations. The lack of good biomarkers for diagnostic as well as for prognostic purposes, but also the need for new drug targets and for a better understanding of the pathophysiology, makes this technique a valuable tool. Different RNA profiling approaches have been used, addressing distinct scientific questions. MS brain tissue samples have been proven to be an appropriate source for RNA profiling to investigate molecular pathomechanisms. This work discusses the critical parameters for RNA profiling of MS brain tissues, and reviews the results obtained by microarray studies analyzing differential gene expression in MS brain tissues.