Figure 3
The differences in the expression of candidate genes at the pathway level among the groups. To analyze the transcription levels of candidate genes in pathway levels, we integrated the data of three genes (SLC17A1, SLC17A4 and SLC2A9) mRNA expression that had been tested in our pervious study17 and the transcription levels of the other six candidate genes were analyzed in the present study. All those mRNA expression data of candidate genes come from the same samples. Because all candidate loci and pathways only influenced the concentrations of serum urate and the risk of gout in males, mRNA expressions of the candidate genes were only measured and analyzed in males. Quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) using SYBR Green was performed to test the relative mRNA levels of the candidate genes. The relative expression levels were analyzed using the Wilcoxon rank sum test. The data are illustrated as box plots. The upper edges and lower edges of the boxes represent the 75th percentiles and 25th percentiles, respectively. The lines inside the boxes represent the median of the data.
