Background & objective: There is great signification to classify the molecular pathogenesis of gliomas. Gene chip is able to profile the gene expression of tumors, which may become a new method for studying molecular pathology of tumors. The cDNA was used in order to detect the differences in gene expression profiles of different types of gliomas.
Methods: cDNA probes tagged with 32P were converted from total RNA extracted from 4 samples of 3 different pathological types, including oligodendrogliomas, anaplastic astrocytomas and ependymomas, and one sample of normal human brain tissue as well, which were then hybridized to the Atlas array. After autoradiography, the gene expression profiles were analyzed with the special software and by the cluster analysis.
Results: As compared to the normal brain tissue, the number of differential expressed genes in these tumor samples ranging from 11 to 118 was found. These 4 samples could be divided into 3 kinds of types when 107 differential expressed genes were selected to be as the cluster analysis index. This result was in accordance with the neuropathological diagnosis.
Conclusion: cDNA array is able to profile gene expression in different types of gliomas. Combined with the bioinformational method, we may further obtain useful information about molecular pathology of gliomas.