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Updated: Jun 18, 2026

Characterization of In Vitro Differentiation of Human Primary Keratinocytes by RNA-Seq Analysis
Published on: May 16, 2020
Comprehensive transcriptional profiling of human epidermis, reconstituted epidermal equivalents, and cultured
Ding-Dar Lee1, Jiri Zavadil, Marjana Tomic-Canic
1Department of Dermatology, The NYU Cancer Institute, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA.
Abstract:
Because of its accessibility, skin has been among the first organs analyzed using DNA microarrays; psoriasis, melanomas, carcinomas, chronic wound biopsies, and epidermal keratinocytes in culture have been intensely investigated. Skin has everything: stem cells, differentiation, signaling, inflammation, diseases, cancer, etc. Here we provide step-by-step instructions for bioinformatics analysis of transcriptional profiling of skin. Specifically, we describe the use of GCOS and RMA programs for initial normalization and selection of differentially expressed genes, DAVID and LOLA programs for annotation of genes, and statistically relevant identification of over- and under-represented functional and biological categories in identified gene sets, L2L and Venn diagrams for comparing multiple lists of genes, and oPOSSUM for identification of statistically over-represented transcription factor binding sites in the promoter regions of gene sets. The work can be a primer for researchers embarking on skinomics, the comprehensive analysis of transcriptional changes in the skin.
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