Sample-independent expression stability analysis of human housekeeping genes using the GeNORM algorithm

Abstract

The quantification of mRNAs has been used with great success in many medical research techniques. All of them can use housekeeping genes as internal standards. While most of the commonly used housekeeping genes may have varied expression stability in different human tissue samples or experimental conditions. In this study, 566 housekeeping genes were investigated by conducting a statistical analysis on a large human genome microarray database. The sample-independent expression stability value of every gene was calculated and ranked by using the GeNORM algorithm. Furthermore, microarray expression data of another mammalian model were used to evaluate the variation coefficient of the candidate genes expressed in the mouse models. Most of the candidate housekeeping genes exhibited similar expression stabilities in the two models. This analysis presents the sample-independent expression stability of a set of housekeeping genes. © Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014.