Development of gene expression signatures for normal and tumor-associated cervix fibroblasts

Fresh surgical specimens of Wertheim tumors, not used for for diagnostic purpose, were utilized to establish primary cell cultures. Frozen sections were used to determine the tumor free, and tumorous areas. Small tissue pieces of normal or tumorous regions were let to grow in Amnio-grow medium. Primary cells were positive for vimentin and negative for cytokeratin. To determine the molecules playing critical roles in the function of tumor-associated fibroblasts mRNA expression profile of 3 pairs of fibroblasts isolated from normal and tumorous cervical tissue and additional two normal primary cell cultures were analysed.