Analysis of cellular adhesion by microarray expression profiling

Microarrays of oligonucleotides or cDNAs can be used to establish the expre ssion profiles of numerous genes in a single experiment. We have establishe d a microarray platform to identify genes in a number of different patholog ical conditions. particularly those with an inflammation component. This pl atform utilised the output of an eosinophil sequencing project in which 106 9 sequences were identified that were not represented in the public domain. An eosinophil model cell line, AML14.3D10, was used to investigate cell ad hesion. The transcription profile of adhered and non-adhered AML 14.3D10 ce lls was shown to be both technically and biologically reproducible. A numbe r of genes were found differentially expressed in the adhered vs. non-adher ed populations. in the adhered population, the expression of these genes wa s restricted compared to brain, lung, kidney and especially bone marrow. Ho wever, the differentially regulated genes were not among those genes most r estricted to eosinophils. We discuss the implications of transcription prof iling on gene annotation and its potential utility for the identification o f targets for drug intervention. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.