title: Pathway analysis of differentially expressed genes in human esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma (ESCC) is one of the most common human cancers with a particularly high incidence in certain regions of China. Differentially expressed genes (DEG) between the esophageal squamous carcinoma tissues and matched normal esophageal mucosal epithelial tissues can be detected by employing the gene microarray technology. This can aid the analysis of the underlying disease mechanism and can help to identify potentially critical genes as well as related molecular signalling pathways.
  
  
  METHODS
  The potentially critical genes and related signal pathways are examined by bioinformatics analysis including Gene Ontology (GO) analysis, pathway analysis and signal transduction networks. Here, we performed microarray analysis with 8 pairs of ESCC and normal esophageal mucosal epithelial tissues.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Compared to the control group, 347 and 203 genes were found to be up-regulated and down-regulated in the experimental group, respectively. Based on pathway analysis, 52 and 51 signal transduction pathways were involved in the up-regulated and the down-regulated genes, respectively. SLC27A6, RAB11A, ABCA8, JAM2, HNMT, GSTM1, and CDKN3, which play critical roles in regulating the expression of ESCC, were identified among the key genes involved in the signal transduction networks.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Investigation of the mechanism underlying ESCC can provide a direction for the clinical prevention and treatment of ESCC.
authors.affiliation: Department of Gastroenterology, Beijing Friendship Hospital Affiliated to Capital Medical University, Beijing, China. zhangshutian@ccmu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: C-Q
authors.initials: CQ
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: S-T
authors.initials: ST
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: S-L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.forename: X-J
authors.initials: XJ
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Xing
authors.forename: W-H
authors.initials: WH
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: L-L
authors.initials: LL
authors.lastname: Shao
authors.forename: S-T
authors.initials: ST
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D044466:Asian People; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000235:genetics*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002681:China; D019295:Computational Biology; D004938:Esophageal Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics*; D000077277:Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D006801:Humans; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis