Systematic isolation of genes differentially expressed in normal and cancerous tissue of the pancreas.
BACKGROUND
There is increasing knowledge about the genetic basis of pancreatic cancer (PaCa). Tumor suppressor genes (TSGs; e.g. p53 and DPC4) and oncogenes (e.g. K-ras) have been shown to be involved in the development of PaCa. However, the extent of chromosomal changes (gains and losses) implicates that many more genes may be involved in the multistep progression of PaCa. Identification of these genes is essential for understanding the molecular events in the development of PaCa.


METHODS
We assembled public and proprietary libraries of more than 4 million expressed sequence tags using newly developed software tools.


RESULTS
We identified a total of 249 genes with specific expression patterns in normal and cancerous tissue of the pancreas. Of these, 27 genes were found to be preferentially expressed in normal tissue of the pancreas, while 222 genes showed significant upregulation of expression in PaCa. Of the 249 genes, 232 (93.2%) were found to represent known human genes or putative human homologues of genes characterized previously in other species, while 17 (6.8%) represent putative new genes.


CONCLUSIONS
These genes may represent a valuable source to identify novel TSGs and oncogenes involved in the carcinogenesis of PaCa.
Department of Visceral, Thoracic and Vascular Surgery, University Clinic Carl Gustav Carus, Technical University Dresden, Dresden, Germany. Robert.Gruetzmann@mailbox.tu-dresden.de
Robert
R
Grützmann
Christian
C
Pilarsky
Eike
E
Staub
Armin O
AO
Schmitt
Melanie
M
Foerder
Thomas
T
Specht
Bernd
B
Hinzmann
Edgar
E
Dahl
Ingo
I
Alldinger
Andre
A
Rosenthal
Detlef
D
Ockert
Hans-Detlev
HD
Saeger
D018076:DNA, Complementary / Q000235:genetics; D004273:DNA, Neoplasm / Q000032:analysis; D016208:Databases, Factual; D005260:Female; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D015723:Gene Library; D015894:Genome, Human; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010179:Pancreas / Q000378:metabolism*; D010190:Pancreatic Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*; D012334:RNA, Neoplasm / Q000032:analysis
D018076:DNA, Complementary; D004273:DNA, Neoplasm; D012334:RNA, Neoplasm