BACKGROUND: Thalidomide is an anti-inflammatory and anti-angiogenic drug 
currently used for the treatment of several diseases, including erythema nodosum 
leprosum, which occurs in patients with lepromatous leprosy. In this research, 
we use DNA microarray analysis to identify the impact of thalidomide on gene 
expression responses in human cells after lipopolysaccharide (LPS) stimulation. 
We employed a two-stage framework. Initially, we identified 1584 altered genes 
in response to LPS. Modulation of this set of genes was then analyzed in the LPS 
stimulated cells treated with thalidomide.
RESULTS: We identified 64 genes with altered expression induced by thalidomide 
using the rank product method. In addition, the lists of up-regulated and 
down-regulated genes were investigated by means of bioinformatics functional 
analysis, which allowed for the identification of biological processes affected 
by thalidomide. Confirmatory analysis was done in five of the identified genes 
using real time PCR.
CONCLUSIONS: The results showed some genes that can further our understanding of 
the biological mechanisms in the action of thalidomide. Of the five genes 
evaluated with real time PCR, three were down regulated and two were up 
regulated confirming the initial results of the microarray analysis.