Expression data from (mouse) normal lung fibroblasts and carcinoma-associated fibroblasts

Cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) have been reported to support tumor progression by a variety of mechanisms. However, their role in the progression of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) remains poorly defined. In addition, the extent to which specific proteins secreted by CAFs contribute directly to tumor growth is unclear. To study the role of CAFs in NSCLC, a cross-species functional characterization of mouse and human lung CAFs was performed, including gene expression analysis comparing normal mouse lung fibroblasts (NFs) and mouse lung CAFs to seek for differentially-expressed secreted proteins. Gene expression microarrays were used to identify transcriptomic changes between NFs and CAFs that may contribute to their different tumor-enhancing capacity. NFs and CAFs were grown in vitro for RNA extraction and hybridization on mouse 430_2 Affymetrix microarrays