Figure 1

Genes showing strong differential expression in adipose tissue of African Americans (AA) compared to Caucasians (CA). A) Genome-wide expression microarray identified 2-fold higher expression of the CRYBB2, SF1, GSTT2B, and CLEA4A gene in AA subjects, while expression of DHRS4L1, MARCO (Macrophage receptor with collagenous structure), and USMG5 was lower; B) Technical validation by qRT-PCR confirmed lower expression of MARCO gene in adipose tissue of AAs compared to CAs. MARCO expression is shown after 36B4 normalization and ln transformation. In A and B the box represents the interquartile range, which contains 50% of the values. The whiskers are lines that extend the box to the highest and lowest values, excluding outliers. A line across the box indicates the median; and C)MARCO expression is positively correlated with BMI in 99 non-diabetic CA subjects.