RESUMO
Objective Hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH) is a life-threatening condition characterized by excessive inflammation, with a high incidence in children and a death rate of 40%.This study was to analyze the gene expression profile in child-hood HLH and explore the important pathways of childhood HLH using bioinformatic methods . Methods The childhood HLH gene ex-pression profile data GSE26050 were obtained from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database of the National Center for Biotechnolo-gy Information.Differentially expressed genes were identified with the GEO 2R online analysis tools released recently .The key pathways of the differentially expressed genes were investigated using the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes ( KEGG) pathway enrichment a-nalysis. Results A total of 184 differentially expressed genes were identified , 126 upregulated and the other 58 downregulated .They were enriched in 3 pathways, including cytokine-cytokine receptor interaction , hematopoietic cell lineage and NOD-like receptor signaling pathways. Conclusion Bioinformatic tools allow the identification of the key genes and pathways associated with the development and progression of childhood HLH and point out the potential directions for researches on the mechanisms of childhood HLH .