Gene expression profiles in liver cancer and normal liver tissues

AIM To describe a liver cancer = specific gene expression profile and to identify genes that showed alteredexpression between liver cancer tissues and their adjacent nearly normal tissues.METHODS The cDNA probes which were labeled with a-32P dATP were synthesized from total RNA ofliver cancer and adjacent normal tissues and hybridized separately to two identical Atlas human cancer eDNAexpression array membranes containing 588 known genes.RESULTS Autoradiographic results were analyzed by specific Atlas ImageTM (version 1. 0) software.Among the 588 genes analyzed, 18 genes were found up-regulated in cancer, including TFDP2, Aktl, E2F-3etc, and 25 genes were down-regulated in cancer, including TDGF1, BAK, LAR, etc. Expression levels ofgenes that associated with the regulation of cell proliferation, apoptosis, differentiation, cell-cellinteraction, invasion regulators and eytokines altered mostly.CONCLUSION The result obtained from Atlas microarray provides a comprehensive liver cancer-specificexpression profile. The results can lead to the identification of liver cancer-specific biomarkers and may behelpful in early diagnosis and dentifiction of target genes for designing rational therapeutic strategies.