Figure 2.
Global Gene Signature Associated with Enhanced Tumor-Initiating Activity Reveals Putative CSC Biomarkers and a New Therapeutic Target
(A) Microarray gene expression analysis comparing several different samples: primary MRTs (P, primary MRT that was propagated [MRT-01], and primary MRT of kidney [MRT-02]), Early MRT PDX passage (Xn2, Xn3), intermediate MRT PDX passage (Xn7), late MRT PDX passage (Xn17, Xn19), and human embryonic stem cells (ESCs). Unsupervised hierarchical clustering revealed great similarity between MRT PDXs and ESCs, emphasizing their undifferentiated nature.
(B) Comparison of the MRT tissues revealed two distinct gene expression patterns: genes that were upregulated (red) and genes that were downregulated (green) throughout the sequential propagation.
(C and D) Functional category grouping of the (C) upregulated and (D) downregulated differentially expressed genes during propagation.
(E and F) Gene heatmaps comparing the expression pattern of (E) several upregulated and (F) several downregulated genes related to various biological functions.