APPLICATION OF THE DIFFERENTIAL HYBRIDIZATION OF ATLAS(TM) HUMAN EXPRESSION ARRAYS TECHNIQUE IN THE IDENTIFICATION OF DIFFERENTIALLY EXPRESSED GENES IN HUMAN GLIOBLASTOMA-MULTIFORME TUMOR-TISSUE

Background and Objectives: Several molecular biology techniques are ut ilized to study changes in gene expression during the genesis of human tumors. Our objective was to identify genes that showed altered expre ssion between normal brain tissue (NBT) and glioblastoma multiforme tu mor tissue (GMTT). Methods: The technique of differential hybridizatio n of two Atlas(TM) Human cDNA expression array was used. in this techn ique, dCTP(32)-labeled complimentary DNA from NET and GMTT was hybridi zed to two identical human cDNA expression array membranes containing 588 known genes. Results: Autoradiographic analysis showed that of the 588 genes analyzed, 52 are overexpressed in GMTT and 57 in NET. A gen e-specific semiquantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain rea ction (RT-PCR) method was used to confirm the expression pattern of se ven known genes. RT-PCR results demonstrate that the expression patter n of a majority of genes agreed with the expression pattern observed o n expression array. The known tumor suppressor genes retinoblastoma (R B) and p53 showed loss of expression in GMTT compared with NET. Conclu sions: We conclude that the differential hybridization technique of At las(TM) Human cDNA expression array can be a useful method in identify ing genes that are differentially expressed either in NET or GMTT. (C) 1998 Wiley-Liss, Inc.