Identification of Genetic Determinants of the Sexual Dimorphism in CNS Autoimmunity
Fig 4
Influence of sex hormone-dependent signaling pathways on genetic control of the EAE sexual dimorphism.
Gene lists were generated using the polymorphic MS-GWAS orthologues residing within EAE-QTL/BTL that were either male-specific, female-specific, or non-sex-specific. These lists were used to identify the top associated functional gene networks using the core analysis feature in IPA (Table 1). GWAS candidates are dark shaded. Within these networks, we identified genes that were predicted to be regulated by estrogens and/or androgens using the connect tool in IPA’s Pathway Designer. These genes included Rac, Erk, Pkc, Il-1, Akt, Pi3k, and members of the MAPK family, including p38 MAPK. These genes were pulled out from the main non-sex-specific module and displayed at the bottom of the figure to more easily observe their connections to the male- and female-specific modules.