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Gene Expression Profiling of Formalin Fixed Paraffin Embedded Familial Breast Tumours Using the Whole Genome-DASL Assay

ABSTRACT: Tissue sample acquisition is a limiting step in many studies. There are many thousands of formalin fixed paraffin embedded archival blocks collected around the world, but in contrast relatively few fresh frozen samples in tumor banks. Once samples are fixed in formalin the RNA is degraded and traditional methods for gene expression profiling are not suitable. In this study we have evaluated the whole genome DASL assay from Illumina to perform transcriptomic analysis from archived breast tumor tissue fixed in formalin paraffin embedded blocks. We profiled 76 familial breast tumors from cases carrying a BRCA1, BRCA2 or ATM mutation, or from non-BRCA1/2 families. We found that replicate samples correlated well with each other (r2=0.9-0.98). In 12/15 cases, the matched formalin-fixed and frozen samples predicted the same tumor molecular subtypes with confidence. These results demonstrate that the whole genome DASL assay is a valuable tool to profile degraded RNA from archival FFPE material. This assay will enable transcriptomic analysis of a large number of archival samples that are stored in pathology archives around the globe and consequently will have the potential to improve our understanding and characterisation of many diseases. RNA was extracted from FFPE Familial breast tumours and analysed using the WG-DASL assay for Illumina.

ORGANISM(S): Homo sapiens

SUBMITTER: Waddell Nic

PROVIDER: S-ECPF-GEOD-21921 | biostudies-other |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other

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Project description:BackgroundWe have developed a gene expression assay (Whole-Genome DASL), capable of generating whole-genome gene expression profiles from degraded samples such as formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded (FFPE) specimens.Methodology/principal findingsWe demonstrated a similar level of sensitivity in gene detection between matched fresh-frozen (FF) and FFPE samples, with the number and overlap of probes detected in the FFPE samples being approximately 88% and 95% of that in the corresponding FF samples, respectively; 74% of the differentially expressed probes overlapped between the FF and FFPE pairs. The WG-DASL assay is also able to detect 1.3-1.5 and 1.5-2 -fold changes in intact and FFPE samples, respectively. The dynamic range for the assay is approximately 3 logs. Comparing the WG-DASL assay with an in vitro transcription-based labeling method yielded fold-change correlations of R(2) approximately 0.83, while fold-change comparisons with quantitative RT-PCR assays yielded R(2) approximately 0.86 and R(2) approximately 0.55 for intact and FFPE samples, respectively. Additionally, the WG-DASL assay yielded high self-correlations (R(2)>0.98) with low intact RNA inputs ranging from 1 ng to 100 ng; reproducible expression profiles were also obtained with 250 pg total RNA (R(2) approximately 0.92), with approximately 71% of the probes detected in 100 ng total RNA also detected at the 250 pg level. When FFPE samples were assayed, 1 ng total RNA yielded self-correlations of R(2) approximately 0.80, while still maintaining a correlation of R(2) approximately 0.75 with standard FFPE inputs (200 ng).Conclusions/significanceTaken together, these results show that WG-DASL assay provides a reliable platform for genome-wide expression profiling in archived materials. It also possesses utility within clinical settings where only limited quantities of samples may be available (e.g. microdissected material) or when minimally invasive procedures are performed (e.g. biopsied specimens).

Project description:BackgroundThe cDNA-mediated Annealing, extension, Selection and Ligation (DASL) assay has become a suitable gene expression profiling system for degraded RNA from paraffin-embedded tissue. We examined assay characteristics and the performance of the DASL 502-gene Cancer Panel v1 (1.5K) and 24,526-gene panel (24K) platforms at differentiating nine human epidermal growth factor receptor 2- positive (HER2+) and 11 HER2-negative (HER2-) paraffin-embedded breast tumors.MethodsBland-Altman plots and Spearman correlations evaluated intra/inter-panel agreement of normalized expression values. Unequal-variance t-statistics tested for differences in expression levels between HER2 + and HER2 - tumors. Regulatory network analysis was performed using Metacore (GeneGo Inc., St. Joseph, MI).ResultsTechnical replicate correlations ranged between 0.815-0.956 and 0.986-0.997 for the 1.5K and 24K panels, respectively. Inter-panel correlations of expression values for the common 498 genes across the two panels ranged between 0.485-0.573. Inter-panel correlations of expression values of 17 probes with base-pair sequence matches between the 1.5K and 24K panels ranged between 0.652-0.899. In both panels, erythroblastic leukemia viral oncogene homolog 2 (ERBB2) was the most differentially expressed gene between the HER2 + and HER2 - tumors and seven additional genes had p-values < 0.05 and log2 -fold changes > |0.5| in expression between HER2 + and HER2 - tumors: topoisomerase II alpha (TOP2A), cyclin a2 (CCNA2), v-fos fbj murine osteosarcoma viral oncogene homolog (FOS), wingless-type mmtv integration site family, member 5a (WNT5A), growth factor receptor-bound protein 7 (GRB7), cell division cycle 2 (CDC2), and baculoviral iap repeat-containing protein 5 (BIRC5). The top 52 discriminating probes from the 24K panel are enriched with genes belonging to the regulatory networks centered around v-myc avian myelocytomatosis viral oncogene homolog (MYC), tumor protein p53 (TP53), and estrogen receptor α (ESR1). Network analysis with a two-step extension also showed that the eight discriminating genes common to the 1.5K and 24K panels are functionally linked together through MYC, TP53, and ESR1.ConclusionsThe relative RNA abundance obtained from two highly differing density gene panels are correlated with eight common genes differentiating HER2 + and HER2 - breast tumors. Network analyses demonstrated biological consistency between the 1.5K and 24K gene panels.

Project description:BackgroundFormalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissue samples are routinely archived in the course of patient care and can be linked to clinical outcomes with long-term follow-up. However, FFPE tissues have degraded RNA which poses challenges for analyzing gene expression. Next-generation sequencing (NGS) is rapidly becoming accepted as an effective tool for measuring gene expressions for research and clinical use. However, the feasibility of NGS has not been firmly established when using FFPE tissue.ResultsWe optimized strategies for whole transcriptome sequencing (RNA-seq) using FFPE tissue. Ribosomal RNA (rRNA) was successfully depleted by competitive hybridization using the Ribo-zero™ Kit (Epicentre Biotechnologies), and rRNA sequence content was less than one percent for each library. Gene expression measured by FFPE RNA-seq was compared to two different standards: RNA-seq from fresh frozen (FF) tissue and quantitative PCR (qPCR). Both FF and FFPE tumors were sequenced on an Illumina Genome Analyzer IIX with an average of 10 million reads. The distribution of FPKMs (fragments per kilobase of exon per million fragments mapped) and number of detected genes were similar between FFPE and FF. RNA-seq expressions from FF and FFPE samples from the same renal cell carcinoma (RCC) correlated highly (r = 0.919 for tumor 1 and r = 0.954 for tumor 2). On hierarchical cluster analysis, samples clustered by patient identity rather than method of preservation. TaqMan qPCR of 424 RCC-related genes correlated highly with FFPE RNA-seq expressions (r = 0.775 for FFPE tumor 1, r = 0.803 for FFPE tumor 2). Expression fold changes were considered, to assess biologic relevance of gene expressions. Expression fold changes between FFPE tumors (tumor 1/tumor 2) correlated well when comparing qPCR and RNA-seq (r = 0.890). Expression fold changes between tumors from different risk groups (our high risk RCC/The Cancer Genome Atlas, TCGA, low risk RCC) also correlated well when comparing RNA-seq from FF and FFPE tumors (r = 0.887).ConclusionsFFPE RNA-seq provides reliable genes expression data, comparable to that obtained from fresh frozen tissue. It represents a useful tool for discovery and validation of biomarkers.

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Gene Expression Profiling of Formalin Fixed Paraffin Embedded Familial Breast Tumours Using the Whole Genome-DASL Assay

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