CAL-51 breast cancer side population cells

Human solid tumors contain rare cancer side population (SP) cells, which expel the fluorescencent dye H33342 and display cancer stem cell characteristics. Transcriptional profiling of cancer SP cells isolated by H33342 fluorescence analysis is a newly emerging approach to discover cancer stem cell markers and aberrant differentiation pathways. Using Affymetrix expression microarrays this study investigated differential gene expression between SP and non-SP (NSP) cells isolated from the CAL-51 human mammary carcinoma cell line. Keywords: cell type comparison To characterize differential gene expression between CAL-51 breast cancer SP and NSP cells, three consecutive cell culture passages of CAL-51 were independently subjected to H33342 labeling and dual wavelength fluorescence analysis and were then flow cytometrically sorted into SP and NSP cell fractions. Subsequently, each of the six cell preparations was subjected to global transcriptional profiling using Affymetrix HG U133 Plus 2.0 expression microarrays.