Evaluation by hierarchical clustering of multiple cytokine expression after phytohemagglutinin stimulation

The hierarchical clustering method has been used for exploration of gene expression and proteomic profiles; however, little research into its application in the examination of expression of multiplecytokine/chemokine responses to stimuli has been reported. Thus, little progress has been made on how phytohemagglutinin(PHA) affects cytokine expression profiling on a large scale in the human hematological system. To investigate the characteristic expression pattern under PHA stimulation, Luminex, a multiplex bead-based suspension array, was performed. The data set collected from human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) was analyzed using the hierarchical clustering method. It was revealed that two specific chemokines (CCL3 andCCL4) underwent significantly greater quantitative changes during induction of expression than other tested cytokines/chemokines after PHA stimulation. This result indicates that hierarchical clustering is a useful tool for detecting fine patterns during exploration of biological data, and that it can play an important role in comparative studies