Transformation of expression intensities across generations of affymetrix microarrays using sequence matching and regression modeling

The utility of previously generated microarray data is severely limited owing to small study size, leading to under-powered analysis, and failure of replication. Multiplicity of platforms and various sources of systematic noise limit the ability to compile existing data from similar studies. We present a model for transformation of data across different generations of Affymetrix arrays, developed using previously published datasets describing technical replicates performed with two generations of arrays. The transformation is based upon a probe set-specific regression model, generated from replicate measurements across platforms, performed using correlation coefficients. The model, when applied to the expression intensities of 5069 shared, sequence-matched probe sets in three different generations of Affymetrix Human oligonucleotide arrays, showed significant improvement in inter generation correlations between sample-wide means and individual probe set pairs. The approach was further validated by an observed reduction in Euclidean distance between signal intensities across generations for the predicted values. Finally, application of the model to independent, but related datasets resulted in improved clustering of samples based upon their biological, as opposed to technical, attributes. Our results suggest that this transformation method is a valuable tool for integrating microarray datasets from different generations of arrays.