Identification of altered regulatory pathways in diabetes type II and complications through expression networks

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2D) is characterised by impaired glucose homeostasis and insulin resistance. Alteration in various biological cascades is observed during diabetes and its associated complications. Differentially expressed genes obtained from microarray data are used to construct co-expression networks integrated with interaction data. Our study uses this integrated functional networks concept to discover significantly altered pathways and regulations involved in T2D condition. Major findings of our work include: novel interactions of GAPDH with SUMO4 and EGFR in GAPDH-EGFR_MicrovascularComplication; endothelial dysfunction due to impaired AKT1 expression caused by PXN and SRC interaction with altered eNOS expression as perceived in Inflammation_VascularDysfunction network; vascular complications due to altered interactions of beta-catenin, VEGF and wnt signalling genes set off by oxidative stress as envisaged in the Wnt_VascularComplication network.