Comparative gene expression profiles of immune inhibitory and non-inhibitory melanoma cell lines

Dysfunction in type I interferon (IFN) signaling occurs in patients with stage II or more advanced cancer. After screening the effects of a panel of 12 melanoma cell lines on PBMCs of healthy volunteers of IFNalpha signal pathway, two groups of melanoma cell lines could be identified one with stronger suppression (low pSTAT-1 group) than the other (high pSTAT-1 group). Comparative global gene expression between two groups identified 6771 differential expression genes. This gene list indicated down regulation of IFNalpha signal in immune suppressive melanoma cells. To evaluate this gene list for predictive power on IFNalpha signal modulatory function, we analyzed gene expression 41 independent melanoma cell lines and heat map clusters these cell lines into two groups, one with strong immune suppressive function and other with less effect. Fifty-three melanoma cell lines were analyzed with twelve technical repeats.