Mus musculus Transcriptome or Gene expression

Two main features common to all solid tumors are tissue hypoxia and inflammation, both of which cause tumor progression, metastasis and mortality, and limit therapy efficacy. Indeed, the risk for a large number of cancers is known to be associated with chronic inflammation of the non-cancerous tissue. For example, patients suffering from inflammatory bowel disease clearly are at increased risk to develop colon cancer, one of the most dangerous cancer forms. Our project aims for a better understanding of the interplay between tumor hypoxia and inflammation, two major environmental conditions that govern the "aggressiveness" of a tumor. In contrast to previous reports, we found only limited cross-talk between the hypoxic (HIF) and inflammatory (NF-kB) pathways in MC-38 mouse colon cancer cells. Genetically modified MC-38 cells will allow to study the (combined) role of HIF and NF-kB in these pathways in vitro and in experimental colon cancer in vivo under normal and inflammatory conditions.