Identification of aging-associated gene expression signatures that precede intestinal tumorigenesis [mouse]

Aging-associated gene expression alterations have been implicated in various cancers including colorectal cancer. We examined aging-associated gene expression signatures that precede intestinal tumorigenesis by using the expression level of fluorescent proteins (FPs) as a biomarker of a certain fraction of cells that acquire altered gene expression signatures during aging. We analyzed normal intestinal epithelial epithelial cells with high FP expression (n = 4), normal intestinal epithelial cells with low FP expression (n = 6), and intestinal adenomas (n = 3) from Apc mutant mice crossed with trangenic mice expressing FPs using the Affymetrix Mouse Gene 1.0 ST platform. Array data was processed by Affymetrix GeneChip Command Console, Expression Console, and Transcriptome Analysis Console softwar.