Transcriptome analysis of mesothelioma induced by intraperitoneal injections of asbestos in rats

Human malignant mesothelioma (MM) is an aggressive tumor strongly associated with asbestos exposure. SM patients generally have poorer prognosis compared to EM patients. To identify potential genes accounting for the differential prognosis between these two subtypes, we compared the microarray gene expression profiles of rat SM and EM tissues induced by intraperitoneal injections of 3 types of asbestos (chrysotile,crocidolite and amosite). Carcinogenesis protocol was performed using specific pathogen-free male and female F1 hybrid rats between Fischer344 and Brown-Norway strains. A total of 28 microarrays (Whole Rat Genome Microarray) were used for screening purpose: The 2 arrays were used for knife-scraped peritoneal mesothelial cells, 2 arrays for cultured peritoneal mesothelial cells and 24 arrays for MM samples.