Expression data from vtiligo skin

Vitiligo is a skin disorder due to loss of melanocytes. There are depigmented lesions mixed with normally-pigmented non-lesions. Gene expression profiles have been different between lesional skin and non-lesional skin. Primary cilia have been involved in various cellular functions including cell survival. We used microarrays to detail the programme of gene expression underlying melanocyte survival in vitiligo and identified distinct cilia-related genes involved in melanocyte apoptosis. Lesional and non-lesional skin specimen sets were selected for RNA extraction and hybridization on Affymetrix microarrays. We sought to obtain up- or down-regulated gene profiles in lesional skin compared to those in non-lesional skin specimens. To that end, we biopsed lesional and non-lesional skin specimens from the same patient.