Combination of microarray profiling and protein-protein interaction databases delineates the minimal discriminators as a metastasis network for esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.
Microarray profiling of 15 adjacent normal/tumor-matched esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) specimens identified 40 up-regulated and 95 down-regulated genes. Verification of the microarray measurement by quantitative real-time reverse transcription PCR in the same set of samples as well as an additional 15 normal/tumor-matched samples revealed >95% consistency. These signatures can also be used to classify a recently reported ESCC microarray dataset. Moreover, these molecular signatures were used as templates to elucidate their corresponding protein-protein interaction (PPI) networks using the PPI databases, POINT and POINeT. As a result, 18 genes, of which six were not disclosed in the initial expression profile analysis, were found to be able to serve as the minimal discriminators for distinguishing ESCC tumors from normal specimens. Of these discriminators, ten (BGN, COL1A1, COL1A2, MMP9, CD44, FN1, TGFBI, PXN, SPARC and VWF) were associated with tumor metastasis and formed a highly interactive network with the first four molecules as 'hubs'. Our study not only reveals how novel insights can be obtained from gene expression profiling, but also highlights a group of highly interacting genes associated with metastasis in ESCC.
Wong
Fen-Hwa
FH
Faculty of Life Sciences and Institute of Genome Sciences, National Yang-Ming University, No. 155, Sec. 2, Taipei 112, Taiwan, R.O.C.
Huang
Chi-Ying F
CY
Su
Li-Jen
LJ
Wu
Yu-Chung
YC
Lin
Yong-Shiang
YS
Hsia
Jiun-Yi
JY
Tsai
Hsin-Ting
HT
Lee
Sheng-An
SA
Lin
Chi-Hung
CH
Tzeng
Cheng-Hwai
CH
Chen
Po-Min
PM
Chen
Yann-Jan
YJ
Liang
Shu-Ching
SC
Lai
Jin-Mei
JM
Yen
Chueh-Chuan
CC
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000465:Algorithms; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000235:genetics; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000235:genetics* / Q000556:secondary; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D004938:Esophageal Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D006801:Humans; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; D025941:Protein Interaction Mapping; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D013223:Statistics as Topic
D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D012333:RNA, Messenger