Non-invasive Analysis of the Airway Transcriptome Discriminates Clinical Phenotypes of Asthma

Evaluation of the airway transcriptome may reveal patterns of gene expression that are associated with clinical phenotypes of asthma. To define transcriptomic endotypes of asthma (TEA) we analyzed gene expression in induced sputum that correlate with phenotypes of disease. Gene expression was measured in sputum of subjects with asthma using Affymetrix HuGene ST 1.0 microarrays. Unsupervised clustering analysis of genes identified TEA clusters. Clinical characteristics were compared. Gene expression was measured in sputum of subjects with asthma using Affymetrix HuGene ST 1.0 microarrays. Unsupervised clustering analysis of genes in pathways selected from the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) identified TEA clusters. Clinical characteristics were compared and logistic regression analysis of matched blood samples defined an expression profile to determine the TEA cluster assignment in a cohort of children with asthma for validation.