Analysis of normal lung cells treated with 5-aza-dC to induce DNA demethylation

Analysis of 2 cultured normal lung cell lines, Normal Human Bronchial Epithelial (NHBE) and Human Small Airway Epithelial (SAEC) cells (Lonza, Walkersville, MD), following treatment with 5-aza-dC to induce DNA demethylation. These results provide insight into the role of epigenetic alterations, specifically demethylation, in differential gene expression in various lung neoplasms. Two normal lung cell lines, NHBE and SAEC, were treated with 5uM 5-aza deoxycytidine for 72 hours and Trichostatin A for 24 hours prior to harvesting total RNA for expression array analysis using the Affymetrix Human Genome U133 Plus 2.0 expression platform. Signal intensity and statistical significance was established for each transcript using dChip version 2005. Two-fold increase based on the 90% confidence interval of the result and expression minus baseline >50 was used as the statistical cutoff value after 5Aza-dC and/or TSA treatment to identify upregulated candidate genes.