TWENTY-FOUR GENES ARE UPREGULATED

Hypospadias is a congenital hypoplasia of the penis, with displacement of the urethral opening along the ventral surface, and has been reported to be one of the most common congenital anoma-lies, occurring in approximately 1:250 to 1:300 live births. As hypospadias is reported to be an easily diagnosed malformation at the crossroads of genetics and environment, it is important to study the genetic component in order to elucidate its etiology. In this study, the gene expression profiles both in human hypospadias tissues and normal penile tissues were studied by Human Gene Expression Array. Twenty-four genes were found to be upregulated. Among these, ATF3 and CYR61 have been reported previ-ously. Other genes that have not been previously reported were also found to be upregulated: BTG2