Characterization of human cortical gene expression in relation to glucose utilization.

Objectives:
Human brain development follows a unique pattern characterized by a prolonged period of postnatal growth and reorganization, and a postnatal peak in glucose utilization. The molecular processes underlying these developmental changes are poorly characterized. The objectives of this study were to determine developmental trajectories of gene expression and to examine the evolutionary history of genes differentially expressed as a function of age.
Methods:
We used microarrays to determine age-related patterns of mRNA expression in human cerebral cortical samples ranging from infancy to adulthood. In contrast to previous developmental gene expression studies of human neocortex that relied on postmortem tissue, we measured mRNA expression from the nondiseased margins of surgically resected tissue. We used regression models designed to identify transcripts that followed significant linear or curvilinear functions of age and used population genetics techniques to examine the evol...