Autophagy Is an Innate Mechanism Associated with Leprosy Polarization
Fig 5
Autophagy gene-expression profiling of leprosy lesions reveals a differential expression of BECN1 in T-lep patients.
(A and B) Purified mRNAs from skin lesions of tuberculoid (T-lep) and lepromatous (L-lep) patients were analyzed by RT-qPCR autophagy array. (A) Autophagy processes-related genes differentially expressed were sub-categorized. The expression fold values of the significantly upregulated genes in T-lep lesions are tabulated (full data are available in S1 Table). Threshold for statistical significance was established at P < 0.05. (B) Heat map showing analysis of changes in expression of autophagy processes-related genes in leprosy patients. Each row represents one donor. Asterisks indicate genes with differential expression. Heat map data are representative of four T-lep and seven L-lep samples. (C) Autophagy gene interaction network in T-lep and L-lep skin lesions. Genes with a differential expression in leprosy lesions by autophagy PCR array analysis were visualized by STRING. The action network view. In this view, colored lines and arrow styles between genes indicate the various types of interactions. Network nodes represent genes. Edges represent gene-gene associations. Interactions among autophagy-associated genes were more predominant in T-lep than L-lep patients. Interaction maps are representative of four T-lep and seven L-lep samples.