Functional associations of valve cluster genes generated by filtered IPA analysis.

A) Top 20 regulators of genes in the valve cluster. B) Circos plot linking valve regulators to cellular processes. The strongest associations relate to cell movement and growth/proliferation but cardiovascular disease is also a string association for this group of valve regulatory genes. C) Following filtering for the terms “cardiac” and “development” regulation of EMT was the only pathway significantly upregulated in the valve dataset compared to the myocardial and blood clusters. Notch and Wnt were the likely upstream regulators. Pathways highlight the genes in the Notch and Wnt pathways that are positively associated regulators of EMT for the valve cluster (dark green genes are the most differentially upregulated, with mid green and light green progressively less so). D,E) IPA pathway analysis shows that for disease and biological processes, developmental terms such as development of trunk, genitourinary system, vasculature and neurons were strongly associated with the valve cluster. Negative associations were also found, the most striking being those to familial heart/cardiovascular disease, and congenital heart/cardiovascular disease/anomaly. These terms were positively associated with the myocardial cluster dataset (red box).