Expression data from human primary fibroblasts (IMR90) stably expressing H-RasV12 and treated with Metformin or vehicle. Homo sapiens

Metformin reduces the incidence of cancer in diabetics or in animal models. At the cellular level, the effects of metformin include the inhibition of complex I of the mitochondrial electron transport chain, a reduction in ATP levels and the activation of the energy sensor AMP kinase. Metformin also prevents the production of reactive oxygen species in primary human cells expressing oncogenic ras and the DNA damage associated to the process. We used microarrays to characterize the gene expression changes induced by metformin in primary human fibroblasts expressing oncogenic ras. Overall design: Primary human fibroblasts were infected with a retroviral vector that expresses oncogenic ras. The cell population was then divided in two groups and one of them was treated with 5 mM metformin for 6 days. Then RNA was extracted from three independent replicas of this experiment and compared with cells treated with vehicle. Total RNA was send to Genome Quebec service for hybridization with Affymetrix microarrays.

二甲双胍（Metformin）可降低糖尿病患者或动物模型中的癌症发生率。在细胞层面，二甲双胍的作用包括抑制线粒体电子传递链复合物I、降低三磷酸腺苷（ATP）水平，以及激活能量感受器AMP激酶（AMP kinase）。此外，二甲双胍可在表达致癌性Ras（ras）的原代人细胞中抑制活性氧（reactive oxygen species）的产生，并阻断该过程伴随的DNA损伤。本研究采用基因芯片（microarrays）对表达致癌性Ras的原代人成纤维细胞中二甲双胍诱导的基因表达变化进行表征。整体实验设计：原代人成纤维细胞经携带致癌性Ras的逆转录病毒载体感染后，被分为两组；其中一组采用5 mM二甲双胍处理6天。本实验设置三个独立生物学重复，分别提取各组总RNA，并与溶剂处理组细胞进行对照分析。将总RNA送至魁北克基因组服务中心（Genome Quebec），与Affymetrix基因芯片完成杂交实验。