Obesity is common among kidney transplant recipients; However biological mediators of obesity are not well understood in this population. Because subcutaneous adipose tissue can be easily obtained during kidney transplant surgery, it provides a unique avenue for studying the mechanisms of obesity for this group. Although differential gene expression patterns were previously profiled for kidney transplant patients, gene co-expression patterns can shed light on gene modules not yet explored on the coordinative behaviors of gene transcription in biological and disease processes from a systems perspective. In this study, we collected 29 demographic and clinical variables and matching microarray expression data for 26 kidney transplant patients. We conducted Weighted Gene Correlation Network Analysis (WGCNA) for 5758 genes with the highest average expression levels and related gene co-expression to clinical traits. A total of 35 co-expression modules were detected, two of which showed associations with obesity-related traits, mainly at baseline. Gene Ontology (GO) enrichment was found for these two clinical trait-associated modules. One module consisting of 129 genes was enriched for a variety of processes, including cellular homeostasis and immune responses. The other module consisting of 36 genes was enriched for tissue development processes. Our study generated gene co-expression modules associated with obesity-related traits in kidney transplant patients and provided new insights regarding the cellular biological processes underlying obesity in this population.

中文翻译：

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基因共表达网络与肾脏移植受体中与肥胖相关的特征有关

肥胖在肾移植接受者中很常见。然而，肥胖的生物介质在该人群中尚未被很好地理解。由于在肾移植手术中可以轻松获得皮下脂肪组织，因此它为研究该组肥胖的机理提供了独特的途径。尽管以前曾针对肾脏移植患者描述过差异基因表达模式，但从系统角度来看，基因共表达模式可以阐明尚未探讨的基因模块在生物学和疾病过程中基因转录的协调行为的基因模块。在这项研究中，我们收集了29位人口统计学和临床​​变量以及与26位肾脏移植患者匹配的微阵列表达数据。我们对5758个具有最高平均表达水平和与临床特征相关的基因共表达的基因进行了加权基因相关网络分析（WGCNA）。共检测到35个共表达模块，其中两个显示与肥胖相关性状相关，主要在基线时。发现这两个临床特征相关模块的基因本体论（GO）富集。一个由129个基因组成的模块可用于多种过程，包括细胞稳态和免疫反应。由36个基因组成的另一个模块被丰富用于组织发育过程。我们的研究在肾脏移植患者中产生了与肥胖相关性状相关的基因共表达模块，并提供了有关该人群肥胖背后的细胞生物学过程的新见解。