Correlation Between Clinical Severity and Differentially Expressed Genes
In order to investigate whether there is a correlation between clinical parameters determining the disease severity such as recurrent lung infection, FEV1% values, hepatic involvement, diabetes and differentially expressed genes, bivariate correlation and spearman coefficient method analyses were performed. 29 genes were found to have a significant positive correlation with hepatic involvement. These genes were involved in AGE-RAGE signaling pathway in diabetic complications; p=1.62-06, cytokine-cytokine receptor interaction; p= 0.0047, insulin resistance; p=0.0077, TNF signaling pathway; p=0.0083, aldosterone regulated sodium reabsorpsion; p=0.0087, type II diabetes mellitus; p=0.0133 pathways (Figure 6).