gene expression profiling of brain metastatic melanoma cell lines

Cerebral metastases occur in a majority of metastatic melanoma patients and are a major cause of mortality. Despite this, there is a poor understanding of the molecules/pathways that lead to the brain-metastatic phenotype. Studies designed to address this deficiency and test novel therapeutic approaches have until recently been slowed by an absence of preclinical models of spontaneous CNS metastatic melanoma disease. To address this, we isolated two variants of the human melanoma cell line WM239 (named 131/4-5B1 and 131/4-5B2) which can metastasize spontaneously to brain parenchyma from an orthotopic primary transplant. We have performed gene expression profiling on both brain metastatic cell lines (131/4-5B1 and 131/4-5B2) and compared to the poorly metastatic parental cell line WM239A and a derived highly metastatic variant 113/6-4L in order to examine the mechanisms that influence the progression of malignant melanoma to a brain-metastatic phenotype. Two-condition experiment, brain metastatic cell lines (131/4-5B1 and 131/4-5B2) and compared to the poorly metastatic parental cell line WM239A and a derived highly metastatic variant 113/6-4L. Biological replicates: 4 independently grown and harvested cell line passages. Two technical replicate per condition (including dye swap).