Whole-genome expression profiling of metastatic versus non-metastatic mammary tumors in MMTV-Wnt1 transgenic mice

To identify genes that mediate lung metastasis in breast cancer, we compared expression profiles of metastatic versus non-metastatic mammary tumors in MMTV-Wnt1 transgenic mice. A subset of biologically relevant genes with statistically significant changes was selected for validation. These genes include Alox15, Ptn, Ror2, Sox9, Jag2 and Runx2. These genes encode proteins that play important roles in the immune and inflammatory responses as well as osteogenesis and skeletal morphogenesis. We performed whole-transcript array analysis of three normal mammary glands, three non-metastatic mammary tumors and three metastatic mammary tumors from MMTV-Wnt1 transgenic mice using Affymetrix GeneChip® Mouse Gene 2.0 ST Array.