Gene expression patterns in human cancer cell lines

Microarrays analyzing the pattern of expression
in cancer cells can be expected to have a great
impact on diagnosis, surveillance of therapy,
and screening for anticancer drugs. Approximately
8000 genes among 60 cell lines derived
from different types of cancer have been studied
by Ross et al. (2000). A consistent relationship
between gene expression patterns and
tissue of origin was detectable.
Panel 1 shows the cell-line dendrogram relating
the patterns of gene expression with respect to
the tissue of origin of the cell lines as derived
from 1161 cDNAs in 64 cell lines. Panel 2 shows
a colored microarray representation of the data
using Cy5-labeled (red) cDNA reverse-transcribed
from mRNA isolated from the cell lines
compared with Cy3-labeled (green) cDNA
derived from reference mRNA. The columns
(1161 genes) and the rows (60 cell lines) showin
red clusters of increased gene expression at
several locations. These observations forecast
the future of analysis of altered gene expression
patterns in tumor cells. (Figure adapted from
Ross, et al. 2000 with kind permission by
the authors and Nature Genetics;