Expression profile of primary and wound metastatic lesions of melanoma

The phenomenon that metastatic lesion developed on injured sites has long been recognized in a number of cancers, such as melanoma. The factors associated with wound healing that attract circulating tumor cells have remained unknown, however. A patient with acral lentiginous melanoma presented with a metastatic lesion that appeared 1 month after trauma. To explore the molecular mechanism underlying the promotion of wound metastasis in melanoma, we performed microarray analysis of the metastatic lesions (n = 2) and the primary lesions (n = 3) of the patient. Using Human Genome U133 Plus 2.0 array, we compared global gene expression profiles of tissues derived from the patient’s primary (n = 3) and wound metastatic (n = 2) lesions to search for particular biological functions in genes of which expression intensities were increased in the wound metastasic lesions of melanoma.

创伤部位发生转移性病灶的现象，早已在黑色素瘤等多种癌症中得到证实。然而，那些与伤口愈合相关、可吸引循环肿瘤细胞（circulating tumor cells）的关键因子仍未明确。本研究纳入1例肢端雀斑样黑色素瘤（acral lentiginous melanoma）患者，该患者在遭受创伤1个月后，创伤部位即出现转移性病灶。为探究黑色素瘤创伤转移的潜在分子机制，我们对该患者的2个创伤转移性病灶（n=2）与3个原发性病灶（n=3）开展微阵列分析。本研究使用人类基因组U133 Plus 2.0芯片（Human Genome U133 Plus 2.0 array），对该患者原发性病灶（n=3）及创伤转移性病灶（n=2）来源组织的全基因表达谱进行比较，旨在筛选在黑色素瘤创伤转移性病灶中表达上调的基因，并解析其所富集的特定生物学功能。