Meta-analysis of differential gene expression in lower motor neurons isolated by laser capture microdissection from post-mortem ALS spinal cords

ALS is a fatal neurodegenerative disease for which underlying mechanisms are incompletely understood. The motor neuron is a central player in ALS pathogenesis but different transcriptome signatures have been derived from bulk analysis of post-mortem tissue and iPSC-derived motor neurons (iPSC-MNs). This study performed a meta-analysis of six gene expression studies (microarray and RNA-seq) in which laser capture microdissection (LCM) was used to isolate lower motor neurons from post-mortem spinal cords of ALS and control (CTL) subjects. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) with consistent ALS CTL expression differences across studies were identified. The analysis identified 222 ALS-increased DEGs (FDR 0.80) and 278 ALS-decreased DEGs (FDR