Genome Wide Gene Expression Study of Circulating Monocytes in human with extremely high vs. low bone mass

Peak bone mass (PBM) is an important determinant of osteoporosis. Circulating monocytes may serve as early progenitors of osteoclasts and produce important molecules for bone metabolism. To search for genes functionally important for osteoclastogenesis, we performed a whole genome gene differential expression study of circulating monocytes in human subjects with extremely low vs. high peak bone mass. Keywords: Circulating monocyte, Gene expression, Peak bone mass, DNA microarray We first recruited 878 healthy Chinese females aged 20-45 y with an average of 27.3 y when PBM is attainted and maintained. Then, we distributed the total sample according to the hip Z-score of PBM. From the bottom 100 and top 100 subjects of the PBM phenotypic distribution, we selected 12 subjects (Low-PBM 1-12) and 14 (High-PBM 1-14) with extremely low and high PBM for further DNA microarray experiments.Total RNA was extracted from monocytes