title: Expression profile of epidermal differentiation complex genes in normal and anal cancer cells.
abstract: Anal cancer originates from a peculiar histological region and provides a useful model for investigating alterations in proliferation and/or differentiation of neoplastic keratinocytes. Epidermal differentiation complex (EDC) genes, which form one of the major gene clusters in the human genome, are involved in the terminal differentiation of epithelial cells and in many instances have been implicated in epithelial tumours. We constructed a DNA macroarray capable of characterising the expression profiles of the entire EDC gene complex in normal mucosa and anal cancer biopsies of seven unrelated patients. Brain tissue and cultured keratinocytes were used as controls. All anal cancer samples showed expression profiles in which none of the EDC genes was silent, as evaluated by phosphor-imager analysis. Variance analysis showed significantly lower expression of SPRR2 with respect to SPRR1 or SPRR3, and significantly higher expression of S100A8 than of other S100A subfamily members. At hierarchical clustering analysis, the four basaloid anal cancer cases conglomerated in the top five positions. The macroarray method used by us provides the first demonstration of the expression profile of the EDC gene family in anal cancer, and is capable of producing significant information on the subgrouping of epithelial tumours such as anal cancer.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Histology and Embriology, Fondazione CARISBO Center for Research into Molecular Genetics, Bologna, Italy.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zucchini
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Biolchi
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Strippoli
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Solmi
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Rosati
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Del Governatore
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Milano
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ugolini
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Salfi
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Farina
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Caira
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zanotti
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Carinci
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Valvassori
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001005:Anus Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D017931:DNA Primers / Q000737:chemistry; D004273:DNA, Neoplasm / Q000032:analysis; D004847:Epithelial Cells / Q000378:metabolism; D005260:Female; D015870:Gene Expression; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009092:Mucous Membrane / Q000378:metabolism*; D009363:Neoplasm Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
chemical_list: D017931:DNA Primers; D004273:DNA, Neoplasm; D009363:Neoplasm Proteins