Genes expression of cervical squamous cell carcinoma, CaSki cells, treated with or without recombinant TGF-b1 (2 ng/mL)

Aggressive local invasion is the major way of spread in uterine cervical squamous cell carcinoma (CSCC). Although TGF-b facilitates invasion of various types of cancer cells, the role of TGF-b pathway in CSCC is unclear. Through array-based analysis, immunohistochemical staining of human endometrial cancer tissue, it is shown that interaction between CSCC cells and surrounding cancer asscocited fibroblasts (CAFs) activates TGF-b via TSP-1 secretion to facilitate CSCC invade, resulting in up-regulation of pSMAD3 in CSCC cells to promote invasion. These results suggest that activation of TGF-b induced by the interaction between CSCC cells and CAFs could play a key role in the initiation of tumor spreads. We used microarrays to clarify the changes of gene expression along with recombinant TGF-b1 treatment and to confirm whether there are any changes on genes expression related to TGF-b pathway.