Transcription profiling by array of human MCF7 cells expressing FOXP3

As we clarified before, the FOXP3 gene is an X-linked tumor suppressor gene in mammary carcinoma in both human and mouse. We also clarified that the ERBB2 and SKP2 oncogenes were transcriptionally under control of the FOXP3 gene product in mammary epithelial cells. In order to further clarify the FOXP3 down stream target genes in human breast cancer cells, we planed to conduct a microarray analysis of FOXP3-induced gene expression profiling. MCF7, a human breast cancer cell line, with FOXP3-tet-off system was cultured with and without Doxycyclin for 2 days. In the MCF7 cell cultured without Dox, the FOXP3 transcript was significantly induced as compared to the MCF7 cultured with Dox. Total RNA from MCF7 with and wihtout Dox were extracted by Qiagen's RNeasy column and they were applied to Affymetrix Human U133 2.0 array according to the manufacture's protocol. We clarified as yet unknown FOXP3 target genes in human epithelial cells, e.g., the p21 gene, by this analysis.