Molecular characterization of breast cancer cell lines by expression profiling

Purpose: Gene expression patterns provide detailed insights into cellular regulation that reflect minor differences of cellular capacity not accessible by standard descriptions of the cellular phenotype or origin. Methods: To identify fundamental differences and similarities we analyzed the gene expression patterns of four breast cancer cell lines: MCF-7, SK-BR-3, T-47D, and BT-474. Results: Although only a small subset of genes (597) is represented on the Atlas-cDNA-Array (Clontech) used, clear differences in the expression of a number of genes could be detected. For example, unique high levels of expressions were found for the HLH-protein ID-1 {MCF-7) and the receptor tyrosine kinase erbB2 {SK-BR-3 and T-47D). Most genes analyzed were expressed at comparable levels in ail cell lines studied. Conclusions: For interpretation of the results sets of genes that show similar variation of expression among the cells were grouped together. Furthermore, our analysis allows the assignment of similarity values that lead to a relation profile of the cell lines. How these results correlate with known biological properties of the cell lines is discussed. Additionally, we demonstrate that results obtained by cDNA-Array hybridization for expression of the ErbB receptor family correlate well with competitive RT-PCR, thus confirming the reliability of the cDNA-Array analysis.