Normal Colon Epithelial Cells

Provides a set of enriched normal colon epithelial cells to use as a baseline for disease of the colon We present a dependable expression reference data set for non-neoplastic colonic epithelial cells. An enriched population of fresh colon epithelial cells were obtained from non-neoplastic, colectomy specimens and analyzed using Affymetrix GeneChip Exon 1.0 ST arrays. The findings from this study represent the first comprehensive expression profile for non-neoplastic colonic epithelial cells reported. For demonstration purposes, we have compared the data derived from these cells to a publically available set of tumor and normal matched colon data. This analysis allowed an assessment of global gene expression alterations and demonstrated that adjacent normal tissues, with a high degree of cellular heterogeneity, are not always representative of normal cells for comparison to tumors which arise from the colon epithelium. We also examined alternative splicing events in tumors compared to normal colon epithelial cells. Our analysis of splice variants on a genome-wide scale illustrate that this is a very labor intensive procedure, requiring vigilant examination of the data. It is projected that the contribution of this set of data derived from pure colonic epithelial cells will enhance studies in colon-related disease and offer a vital baseline for studies aimed at elucidating the mechanisms of alternative splicing. Colon epithelial cells were isolated and enriched and hybridized to Exon 1.0 ST arrays