Tumor-associated macrophages regulate the gene expression profiles of pancreatic cancer cells both under normoxia and hypoxia

Pancreatic cancer is a devastating and intractable disease with highly lethal rate, which is equal to incidence of the disease.It is well established that tumor microenvironment plays a pivotal role in tumor progression and metastasis.Tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) are frequently found in close proximity with pancreatic cancer cells, but it is uncertain whether they are involved in pancreatic cancer progression.TAMs around the cancer regions usually exert their tumor-supporting functions by the secretion of cytokines and inflammatory mediators.In this study, we aim to investigate that whether tumor-associated macrophages regulate the gene expression profiles of pancreatic cancer cells both under normoxia and hypoxia. We investigated the differential expression profiles of mRNA in PANC-1 pancreatic cancer cells between four groups: the PANC-1-alone control group under hypoxia (HPC groups), the PANC-1-cocultured TAMs group under hypoxia (HPM groups), the PANC-1-alone control group under normoxia (NPC groups) and the PANC-1-cocultured TAMs group under normoxia (NPM groups).The data of each group are collected from independent experiments in triplicate.Transcriptomic analysis was carried out using a microarray (Arraystar Human mRNA Gene Expression Microarrays V3; Agilent Technology, Santa Clara, USA), which targets 34487 Entrez protein-coding genes.