Microarray and synchronization of neuronal differentiation with pathway changes in the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) databank in nerve growth factor-treated PC12 cells.

The Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway database creates networks from interrelations between molecular biology and underlying chemical elements. This allows for analysis of biologic networks, genomic information, and higher-order functional information at a systems level. We performed microarray experiments and used the KEGG database, systems biology analysis, and annotation of pathway function to study nerve growth factor (NGF)-induced differentiation of PC12 cells. Cells were cultured to 70%-80% confluence, treated with NGF for 1 or 3 hours (h), and RNA was extracted. Stage 1 data analysis involved analysis of variance (ANOVA), and stage 2 involved cluster analysis and heat map generation. We identified 2020 NGF-induced PC12 genes (1038 at 1 h and 1554 at 3 h). Results showed changes in gene expression over time. We compared these genes with 6035 genes from the KEGG database. Cross-matching resulted in 830 genes. Among these, we identified 395 altered genes (155 at 1 h and 301 at 3 h; 2-fold increase from 1 h to 3 h). We identified 191 biologic pathways in the KEGG database; the top 15 showed correlations with neuronal differentiation (mitogen-activated protein kinase [MAPK] pathway: 35 genes at 1 h, 54 genes at 3 h; genes associated with axonal guidance: 12 at 1 h, 26 at 3 h; Wnt pathway: 16 at 1 h, 25 at 3 h; neurotrophin pathway: 4 at 1 h, 14 at 3 h). Thus, we identified changes in neuronal differentiation pathways with the KEGG database, which were synchronized with NGF-induced differentiation.