title: Microarray analysis reveals differences in gene expression of circulating CD8(+) T cells in melanoma patients and healthy donors.
abstract: Circulating T cells from many cancer patients are known to be dysfunctional and undergo spontaneous apoptosis. We used microarray technology to determine whether gene expression differences exist in T cells from melanoma patients versus healthy subjects, which may underlie these abnormalities. To maximize the resolution of our data, we sort purified CD8(+) subsets and amplified the extracted RNA for microarray analysis. These analyses show subtle but statistically significant expression differences for 10 genes in T cells from melanoma patients versus healthy controls, which were additionally confirmed by quantitative real-time PCR analysis. Whereas none of these genes are members of the classical apoptosis pathways, several may be linked to apoptosis. To additionally investigate the significance of these 10 genes, we combined them into a classifier and found that they provide a much better discrimination between melanoma and healthy T cells as compared with a classifier built uniquely with classical apoptosis-related genes. These results suggest the possible engagement of an alternative apoptosis pathway in circulating T cells from cancer patients.
authors.affiliation: Division of Hematology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.
authors.forename: Tong
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Chen-Tsen
authors.initials: CT
authors.lastname: Shu
authors.forename: Elizabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Purdom
authors.forename: Demi
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Dang
authors.forename: Diane
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ilsley
authors.forename: Yaqian
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.forename: Jeffrey
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Weber
authors.forename: Susan P
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Holmes
authors.forename: Peter P
authors.initials: PP
authors.lastname: Lee
mesh_terms: D016000:Cluster Analysis; D006801:Humans; D007156:Immunologic Memory; D008545:Melanoma / Q000097:blood / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology*; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods; D012334:RNA, Neoplasm / Q000235:genetics; D050378:T-Lymphocytes, Regulatory / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D012334:RNA, Neoplasm