ORIGINAL ARTICLE BERYLLIUM-INDUCED LUNG DISEASE Beryllium-induced lung disease exhibits expression profiles similar to sarcoidosis Li Li1,2, Lori J. Silveira1, Nabeel Hamzeh1,2, May Gillespie1, Peggy M. Mroz1, Annyce S. Mayer1,2,3, Tasha E. Fingerlin1 and Lisa A. Maier1,2,3 Affiliations: 1Dept of Medicine, National Jewish Health, Denver, CO, USA. 2Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Sciences, Dept of Medicine, School of Medicine, Denver, CO, USA. 3Environmental Occupational Health Dept, School of Public Health, University of Colorado, Denver, CO, USA. Correspondence: Li Li, Division of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, Dept of Medicine, National Jewish Health, 1400 Jackson Street, Denver, CO 80206, USA. E-mail:
[email protected] ABSTRACT A subset of beryllium-exposed workers develop beryllium sensitisation (BeS) which precedes chronic beryllium disease (CBD). We conducted an in-depth analysis of differentially expressed candidate genes in CBD. We performed Affymetrix GeneChip 1.0 ST array analysis on peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from 10 CBD, 10 BeS and 10 beryllium-exposed, nondiseased controls stimulated with BeSO4 or medium. The differentially expressed genes were validated by high-throughput real-time PCR in this group and in an additional group of cases and nonexposed controls. The functional roles of the top candidate genes in CBD were assessed using a pharmacological inhibitor. CBD gene expression data were compared with whole blood and lung tissue in sarcoidosis from the Gene Expression Omnibus. We confirmed almost 450 genes that were significantly differentially expressed between CBD and controls. The top enrichment of genes was for JAK ( Janus kinase)–STAT (signal transducer and activator of transcription) signalling.