Identification of differentially-expressed genes in intestinal gastric cancer by microarray analysis

Gastric cancer (GC) is one of the most frequent malignant tumors. In order to systematically characterize the cellular and molecular mechanisms of intestinal GC development, in this study, we used 22K oligonucleotide microarrays and bioinformatics analysis to evaluate the gene expression profiles of GC in 45 tissue samples, including 20 intestinal GC tissue samples, 20 normal appearing tissues (NATs) adjacent to tumors and 5 noncancerous gastric mucosa tissue samples. These profiles allowed us to explore the transcriptional characteristics of GC and determine the change patterns in gene expression that may be of clinical significance. 1519 and 1255 differentially-expressed genes (DEGs) were identified in intestinal GC tissues and NATs, respectively, as determined by Bayesian analysis (P<0.001). These genes were associated with diverse functions such as mucosa secretion, metabolism, proliferation, signaling and development, which occur at different stages of GC development.