Differential expression and alternative splicing of cell cycle genes in imatinib-treated K562 cells

Cancer progression often involves the disorder of the cell cycle, and a number of effective chemotherapeutic drugs have been shown to induce cell cycle arrest. The purpose of this study was to comprehensively investigate the effects of imatinib on the expression profile of cell cycle genes in the chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) K562 cell line. In addition, we also investigated alternative splicing of the cell cycle genes affected by imatinib, since an important relationship has been shown to exist between RNA splicing and cell cycle progression. Exon array analysis was performed using total RNA purified from normal and imatinib-treated K562 cells. We identified 185 differentially expressed genes and 277 alternative splicing events between the two cell groups. A detailed analysis by reverse transcription-PCR (RT-PCR) of key genes confirmed the experimental results of the exon array. These results suggested that treatment of K562 cells with imatinib shifts the expression and alternative splicing profiles of several cell cycle-related genes. Importantly, these findings may help improve imatinib treatment strategies in patients with CML and may be useful for imatinib resistance research and CML drug development.