[Gene expression profiling of human ovarian epithelial tumors by digo nucleotide microarray]

Gene expression of human ovarian carcinoma cell lines and epithelial ovarian tumors was examined by oligonucleotide microarray for about 6000 human cDNAs. (1) Comparison of gene expression between CDDP-sensitive human ovarian serous adenocarcinoma cell lines and CDDP-resistant cell lines revealed that gamma-glutamylcysteine synthetase, glutathione peroxidase-like protein, dehydrogenase (UGDH), NAD(P)H: quinoneoxireductase, glucose-6-phosphatase, ornithine decarboxylase and dihydrodiol dehydrogenase were associated with a mechanism of CDDP-resistance. Comparison of gene expression between taxol-sensitive human ovarian cell lines and taxol-resistant cell lines showed that up-regulation of 30 kinds of gene expression including MDR and semaphorin E in taxol-resistant cell lines. (2) Comparison of gene expression among serous adenocarcinomas, clear cell adenocarcinomas and non-cancerous ovarian tissues by hierarchical clustering demonstrated that clear difference between carcinomas and non-cancerous ovarian tissues but not obvious difference between serous and clear adenocarcinomas. Genes that were up- and down-regulated specifically in these two types of ovarian carcinomas were further selected by the criteria that difference in the mRNA level by more than 4-fold between tumors and non-cancerous tissues. Tissue type specific alterations of gene expression are likely to play important roles in the carcinogenesis of epithelial ovarian tumors. cDNA microarray is a powerful and high-throughput tool to analyze gene expression of cancer development.