Comparison of gene expression profiling of human lung at four developmental stages and lung adenocarcioma

It is gradually becoming a new aspect in research to search and explore embryo development for malignant information hidden in tumor cells. In this study, the gene expression profiles for human lungs at four developmental stages and lung adenocarcinoma (ADC) were depicted, respectively. The molecular dynamics was compared for development and lung ADC, and it was proposed that primary lung ADC may hijack part of the molecular mechanisms of lung development to down-regulate homeostasis-associated genes and up-regulate stemness-associated genes; and it was revealed that the genes with monotonely decreasing expression trend during lung development process are enriched with lung ADC prognostic information. The study material for developing lung consisted of 29 cases of therapeutic or spontaneous abortion. The samples included whole embryos aged 3 to 5 weeks post ovulation (n = 10, named WholeE), lungs at 6 to 8 postovulatory weeks (PWs) (n = 10, named EarlyL) and lungs at 16 to 24 PWs (n = 9, named MiddleL). WholeE and EarlyL samples were carefully obtained from medical waste with the guidance of a Nikon stereo microscope SMZ1500 (Japan). MiddleL were collected when autopsies were performed. Embryo/Fetuses with known or suspected genetic disorders were excluded. Uninvolved peripheral lung tissue from adults (named MatureL) was obtained from fifteen patients operated on for benign lung diseases. 69 Lung ADC samples used for expression profiling analysis were obtained from patients. All these samples were examined with Agilent Whole Human Genome 4×44k microarray.