Gene expression profiles in gallbladder cancer: the close genetic similarity seen for early and advanced gallbladder cancers may explain the poor prognosis.

There is currently no data available about the gene expression profiles of gallbladder cancer. The purpose of this study was to identify potential markers for gallbladder cancer and to examine the genetic differences between early and advanced gallbladder cancers. Total RNA was extracted from 17 gallbladder tissue specimens, including 6 advanced gallbladder cancers, 6 early gallbladder cancers and 5 normal control samples. The genes were localized with DNA microarrays and their presence was verified by performing real-time PCR. When the gallbladder cancer isolates were compared to the normal control samples, we identified 4,682 genes, including 2,270 that were overexpressed genes and 2,412 that were underexpressed genes in the gallbladder cancer. We selected 9 overexpressed genes (SERPINB5, BCL10, CD44, ARHGEF11, SERPINB2, RELA, PAK4, PPARD and BUB1B) and 1 underexpressed gene (CAV2) for real-time PCR analysis. When the advanced gallbladder cancer isolates were compared with the early gallbladder cancer isolates, we identified only 12 genes with greater than a 1.7-fold change in gene expression. We have identified several genes that may be tumor markers for gallbladder cancer. The close genetic similarity found between the early and advanced gallbladder cancers may help explain the poor prognosis of this disease. (c) 2008 S. Karger AG, Basel