Johns Hopkins University other research news
Johns Hopkins School of Medicine researchers published in Science the use of SAGE to compare expressed genes in normal and cancerous cells. About 60,000 sequence tags were obtained from each of normal colon cells, colon tumors, colon cell lines, pancreatic tumors, and pancreatic cell lines. A total of 54 percent of the tags matched known database entries. A total of 289 transcripts were expressed at different levels in colon tumors compared with normal colon tissue (p<0.01). Of these, 181 were decreased in colon tumors and 108 exhibited increased levels in the cancer cells.
Of the genes with altered expression in colon tumors, 136 also had altered expression in pancreatic tumors, suggesting that these transcripts play a role in general tumor development. The data reveal genes that may prove useful as diagnostic or prognostic markers, the scientists concluded. ...