Gene expression profiling reveals cross-talk between melanoma and fibroblasts: implications for host-tumor interactions in metastasis.

Host-tumor interaction is considered critical in carcinogenesis, tumor invasion, and metastasis. To explore the reciprocal effects of host-tumor interaction, we developed a system to assess the gene expression patterns of A2058 human melanoma cells cocultured in fibrillar collagen with HS-68 primary human fibroblasts. The gene expression pattern of the cocultured A2058 cells was only modestly affected, whereas the HS-68 fibroblast gene expression pattern was significantly altered. Interleukin-11 and inhibitor of DNA-binding domain-1 gene expression in the cocultured A2058 cells was down-regulated, indicative of a proinflammatory response and resistance to apoptosis, respectively. The overall pattern of up-regulated genes indicated triggering of the proinflammatory process. In addition, the melanoma growth and migration stimulatory chemokines CXCL1 and CXCL2 were significantly up-regulated in the cocultured fibroblasts. These results were corroborated by additional coculture experiments with the melanoma cell lines WM-164, BLM, and SK-Mel-28 and immunohistochemistry on invasive human melanoma sections. Taken together, these results indicate that tumor cells cause a proinflammatory and melanoma growth-promoting response in stromal fibroblasts. The role of inflammation in carcinogenesis, tumor promotion, invasion, and metastasis is viewed as being increasingly important and the results of these studies underscore this as well as identify certain key proteins that are expressed as a result of the complex interactive processes in the host-tumor microenvironment.

Use of microarrays for investigating the subtoxic effects of snake venoms: insights into venom-induced apoptosis in human umbilical vein endothelial cells.

The pathological effects of only a small percentage of the total number of protein components of snake venoms are well documented, yet this knowledge has led to a general understanding of the physiological consequences of snake venom poisoning. The aim of this study was to assess the effect of subpathological levels of Crotalus atrox (Western diamondback rattlesnake) and Bothrops jararaca (Jararaca) snake venoms on the gene expression profile of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) in culture. Analysis of the data demonstrated that HUVECs treated with C. atrox venom had 33 genes up-regulated with significant fold changes of 1.5 or greater compared to untreated control cells. Ten genes were down-regulated with 1.5 or greater fold changes. In cells treated with B. jararaca venom, 33 genes were observed to be up-regulated and 11 genes were down-regulated with a fold change of 1.5 or more. More than half of the up-regulated genes and approximately half of the down-regulated genes detected in cells treated with the venoms were found in both data sets underscoring both the similarities and differences between the two venoms. Ontological categorization of the up-regulated genes from endothelial cells treated with either C. atrox or B. jararaca venom gave the cell growth/maintenance and signal transducer groups as having the most members. The ontology of the down-regulated genes from both venom-treated cell samples was more varied but interestingly, the predominant ontology class was also cell growth/maintenance. Many of the up-regulated genes are involved in the Fas ligand/TNF-alpha receptor apoptotic pathway. In summary, these experiments demonstrate the power of gene expression profiling to explore the subtoxic effects of venoms on gene expression and highlight its potential for the discovery of novel insights into a variety of biological processes and signal transduction pathways. Furthermore, these studies illustrate the subtle functional differences between similar venoms that are not always evident from standard analyses.