Figure 4

L2L analysis of gene expression changes in diabetic nephropathy (DN). (a) Three major conclusions of Baelde et al. [36] revisited. L2L finds support for cytoskeletal dysfunction, but no evidence of reduced nucleotide metabolism. Evidence for the central thesis, reduced tissue repair capacity, is mixed. L2L found reduced expression of IGF-binding proteins, suggesting a defect in response to these growth factors. However, L2L also found a correlation between genes repressed by the serum-response and genes downregulated in DN, as well as a correlation between genes upregulated in DN and genes induced by EGF and VEGF - despite reduced expression of VEGF itself in DN kidneys. (b) Three new biological themes in DN found by L2L. 1. Interferon, TNFα, and their associated apoptotic pathways are all downregulated in DN. 2. The hypoxia response is impaired in DN. 3. Pathways associated with adipogenesis and adipocyte function are downregulated in DN. Complete results, along with descriptions and annotations for all lists, can be found on the L2L website [6]. Red or green denote reduced or increased expression, respectively, in DN or in the condition represented by a list.