Transcriptional analyses of Barrett's metaplasia and normal upper GI mucosae.
Over the last two decades, the incidence of esophageal adenocarcinoma (EA) has increased dramatically in the US and Western Europe. It has been shown that EAs evolve from premalignant Barrett's esophagus (BE) tissue by a process of clonal expansion and evolution. However, the molecular phenotype of the premalignant metaplasia, and its relationship to those of the normal upper gastrointestinal (GI) mucosae, including gastric, duodenal, and squamous epithelium of the esophagus, has not been systematically characterized. Therefore, we used oligonucleotide-based microarrays to characterize gene expression profiles in each of these tissues. The similarity of BE to each of the normal tissues was compared using a series of computational approaches. Our analyses included esophageal squamous epithelium, which is present at the same anatomic site and exposed to similar conditions as Barrett's epithelium, duodenum that shares morphologic similarity to Barrett's epithelium, and adjacent gastric epithelium. There was a clear distinction among the expression profiles of gastric, duodenal, and squamous epithelium whereas the BE profiles showed considerable overlap with normal tissues. Furthermore, we identified clusters of genes that are specific to each of the tissues, to the Barrett's metaplastic epithelia, and a cluster of genes that was distinct between squamous and non-squamous epithelia.
Barrett
Michael T
MT
Division of Human Biology, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle WA 98109, USA.
Yeung
Ka Yee
KY
Ruzzo
Walter L
WL
Hsu
Li
L
Blount
Patricia L
PL
Sullivan
Robert
R
Zarbl
Helmut
H
Delrow
Jeffrey
J
Rabinovitch
Peter S
PS
Reid
Brian J
BJ
D001471:Barrett Esophagus / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D001706:Biopsy; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D004938:Esophageal Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D005753:Gastric Mucosa / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D006801:Humans; D007413:Intestinal Mucosa / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D008679:Metaplasia; D009363:Neoplasm Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; D011230:Precancerous Conditions / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D012334:RNA, Neoplasm / Q000378:metabolism; D014158:Transcription, Genetic
D009363:Neoplasm Proteins; D012334:RNA, Neoplasm