Expression profiling of epidermolysis bullosa associated squamous carcinoma cells

Patients with the genetic skin blistering disease recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa (RDEB) develop aggressive and metastatic cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma which is the principal cause of premature mortality in this patient group. We performed gene expression profiling of RDEB-SCC cells compared to RDEB keratinocytes in order to identify tumor-specific molecules that could potentially be exploited for detection, diagnosis, and therapy of this devastating disease. Total RNA was isolated from RDEB-SCC cells (n = 3), as well as RDEB keratinocyte (n = 3) and normal human keratinocyte (n = 1) cell lines. Gene expression profiling was performed by microarray.