Validation of microarray data.

<p>(<b>A</b>) Gene data derived from the microarray analysis was firstly examined using unsupervised principal components analysis (PCA). Inspection of the PCA score plot revealed clear first component separation of activated (yellow) and low-activated (red) amnion samples. (<b>B</b>) Similarly, hierarchical clustering demonstrated grouping within both the activated and non-activated amnion groups. Collectively these results indicate that gene expression profiles of activated samples are similar to each other, yet distinct to non-activated samples. OTR (<b>C</b>) and IL-8 (<b>D</b>) mRNA levels were then assessed in 6 amnion samples post microarray analysis. Consistent with the microarray data, three samples displayed low levels of OTR and IL-8 mRNA whilst the other three samples displayed characteristically high levels indicative of amnion activation.