Post-mortem cardiac tissue maintains gene expression profile even after late harvesting.

Gene expression studies are used to help identify disease-associated genes, by comparing the levels of expressed transcripts between cases and controls, and to identify functional genetic variants known as expression quantitative loci (eQTLs). While many of these studies are performed in blood or lymphoblastoid cell lines due to tissue accessibility, the relevance of expression differences in tissues that are not the primary site of disease is unclear. Further, many eQTLs are tissue specific. Thus, there is a clear and compelling need to conduct gene expression studies in tissues that are specifically relevant to the disease of interest. One major technical concern about using autopsy-derived tissue is how representative it is of physiologic conditions, given the effect of postmortem interval on tissue degradation.

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Gupta S, Halushka MK, Hilton GM, Arking DE