Comparison to human NASH data sets

The hamster gene expression dataset was compared to two human gene expression data sets [39, 40]. From the study by Suppli et al. [39] a list of differentially expressed genes between patients with histologically proven hepatic steatosis and mild inflammation (NAFL) and patients with NASH (characterized by steatosis, inflammation and fibrosis) was extracted and used to generate a heat map of these genes visualizing differences in gene expression between NASH and NASH-STZ hamsters. Furthermore, the authors of this study had defined a panel of 112 so-called “candidate NAFLD genes”, involved in e.g. insulin signaling, monocyte recruitment, inflammation signaling, hepatocellular cell death and stellate cell activation [39]. This panel of genes was probed on the hamster data set, to explore differences in expression of the NAFLD candidate genes between the NASH and the NASH-STZ group. Data from the NAFL and NASH patient groups in the study by Lake et al. [40] were imported into Qlucore, and analyzed with thresholds similar to the analysis of the hamster RNAseq data (i.e., q-value < 0.05 and fold-change > 1.5-fold). The resulting list of differentially expressed genes between human NASH and NAFL patients was compared to the list of differentially expressed genes between NASH-STZ and NASH hamsters, and genes regulated in both species were plotted on heatmaps, to visualize the gene expression patterns.