Glycomic gene comparison between human epidermal melanocytes and human metastatic melanoma cells

To discover potential biomarkers of melanoma development and progression, we embarked on studies comparing the glycomic gene profiles of normal human epidermal melanocytes with human metastatic melanoma (MM) cells represented by A375 and G361 cell lines. Glycomic features embody all of those enzymatic, membranous and regulatory proteins that influence glycan ‘sugar’ formation/degradation on a cell. Comparative expression profiling of glycomic genes indicated that several genes were differentially expressed between normal melanocytes and MM cells. We speculate that glycome genes differentially expressed in MM cells help drive malignant and metastatic behavior of MM cells and could potentially serve as a biomarker(s) of melanoma progression. Comparative gene expression analysis was performed on (2) samples of normal human epidermal melanocytes and on (2) samples each of human metastatic melanoma A375 and G361 cell lines.