The fundamental rationale for the use of microarray-based gene expression profiling to characterize biological samples is
based in part on the principle that cells, tissues, and perturbations applied to them can be characterized on the basis of
their relative expression of genes and transcripts. Different biological states, cell types, and influences can be distinguished
based on transcriptional profiles and the change in the relative levels of different genes and gene groups. This genomic expression
profile-based discovery of biological states and effector-actions represents an essential element of a systems-based whole-genome
approach to characterizing cells and tissues, and differs from the characterization of individual gene expression changes
in isolation from one another, and has the potential to increase knowledge in all fields of biomedicine. The past two decades
have seen a paradigm shift in which medical genetics has moved from being a tool of the basic investigator to play a role
in the mainstream of medical practice. Identification of genetic causal agents of common endocrine disorders, deciphering
underlying molecular pathophysiology of known conditions, development of new predictive tests for genetic abnormalities, and
applications in the field of therapeutics are some of the implications of this shift. Endocrine systems, in particular, offer
tremendous opportunities for the use of genomic analyses to understand physiological and pathological responses and effectors
without being biased to a particular gene or set of genes. Therefore, the responses of diverse and potentially diversely affected
systems can be broadly evaluated, constrained only by the limitation that there may be either a primary or secondary impact
on transcript abundance. This emerging concept—endocrinomics—thus has the potential to significantly impact the field of endocrine
research and clinical practice. However, advancements in the field are also limited by problems in collecting comprehensive
datasets, the inherent complexity of multiple interacting systems, genetic variations between individuals, and some cumbersomeness
associated with expression profiling technology and data analysis itself. This chapter discusses some of the issues to be
considered in the design and analysis of microarray experiments for the characterization of endocrine-regulated systems.