Expression analysis of secreted and cell surface genes of five transformed human cell lines and derivative xenograft tumors

Abstract

Abstract Background Since the early stages of tumorigenesis involve adhesion, escape from immune surveillance, vascularization and angiogenesis, we devised a strategy to study the expression profiles of all publicly known and putative secreted and cell surface genes. We designed a custom oligonucleotide microarray containing probes for 3531 secreted and cell surface genes to study 5 diverse human transformed cell lines and their derivative xenograft tumors. The origins of these human cell lines were lung (A549), breast (MDA MB-231), colon (HCT-116), ovarian (SK-OV-3) and prostate (PC3) carcinomas. Results Three different analyses were performed: (1) A PCA-based linear discriminant analysis identified a 54 gene profile characteristic of all tumors, (2) Application of MANOVA (Pcorr ANGPTL4, COL1A1, GP2, GPR57, LAMB3, PCDHB9 and PTGER3. The differential expression of ANGPTL4 and COL1A1 and other genes was confirmed by quantitative PCR. Conclusion Overall, a comparison of the three analyses revealed an expression pattern indicative of late angiogenic processes. These results show that a xenograft model using multiple cell lines of diverse tissue origin can identify common tumorigenic cell surface or secreted molecules that may be important biomarker and therapeutic discoveries.