Gene expression profile of transformed pancreatic ductal cells

We observed that upon the activation of the oncogene KRasG12D and the deletion of the tumour suppressor Fbw7 in pancreatic ducts (KFCkY model), not all ducts respond in the same way. Some ductal cells remain morphologically normal while others exhibit signs of transformation (cellular and nuclear enlargement) with the concomitant upregulation of CD44. Here we wanted to understand the differences between the normal-looking and transformed cells at the transcriptional level. Control or transformed cells were recovered from the pancreases of fifteen mice by fluorescence-activated cell sorting. RNA was extracted for hybridisation to Affymetrix microarrays (GeneChip Mouse Gene 1.0 ST Arrays).