Gene expression profiling of articular cartilage reveals functional pathways and networks of candidate genes for osteochondrosis in pigs

Osteochondrosis disorder is characterized by a failure of endochondral ossification of the articular-epiphyseal cartilage and the physeal growth cartilage. The number and identity of relevant genes are unknown. Simultaneously, 24,123 probe-sets were screened, of which 12,292 had present in at least 50% of the samples of either affected or non-affected and were used for further analysed of differential expression. Total RNAs of articular cartilage tissues from affected and non-affected sib-pairs animals were hybridized to Affymetrix Porcine Genome Arrays.