Project description:Characterizations of ascites proteome from ovarian peritoneal carcinomatosis (PC) and gastric PC have demonstrated that ascites contains elevated pro-tumorigenic factors. Reasoning that the composition of ascitic fluid might offer insight into the memory of key biological events occurring intra-abdominally, we hypothesized that paracrine factors essential for survival and growth of peritoneal deposits are secreted into and circulate within ascitic fluid. Our data from cytokine array profile suggest that ascites contains biologically active ligands capable of supporting cellular functions of cancer cells. To decipher downstream signalling pathways activated in cancer cells when exposed to ascites, we performed gene expression analysis of Colo-205 cells upon exposure to PC ascites and ligand inhibitor.
Project description:Characterizations of ascites proteome from ovarian PC and gastric PC have demonstrated that ascites contains elevated pro-tumorigenic factors. Reasoning that the composition of ascitic fluid might offer insight into the memory of key biological events occurring intra-abdominally, we hypothesized that paracrine factors essential for survival and growth of peritoneal deposits are secreted into and circulate within ascitic fluid. Our data from cytokine array profile suggest that ascites contains biologically active ligands capable of supporting cellular functions of cancer cells. To decipher downstream signalling pathways activated in cancer cells when exposed to ascites, we performed gene expression analysis of Colo-205 and SNU-C1 cells upon exposure to PC ascites.
Project description:Peritoneal carcinomatosis is a frequent finding in patients with primary gastric cancer, and it is associated with a poor prognosis. A major mechanism in peritoneal carcinomatosis is the dissemination of cancer cells into the abdominal cavity, mainly in diffuse gastric adenocarcinoma. The features that enable diffuse primary gastric tumours to develop peritoneal dissemination have been little investigated and are only incompletely understood. We therefore compared the gene expression profile in patients with diffuse primary gastric cancer with and without peritoneal carcinomatosis. Specimens from consecutive gastric cancer patients with and without peritoneal carcinomatosis were investigated using oligonucleotide microarrays. Keywords: Disease state analysis
Project description:Characterizations of ascites proteome from ovarian PC and gastric PC have demonstrated that ascites contains elevated pro-tumorigenic factors. Reasoning that the composition of ascitic fluid might offer insight into the memory of key biological events occurring intra-abdominally, we hypothesized that paracrine factors essential for survival and growth of peritoneal deposits are secreted into and circulate within ascitic fluid. Our data suggest that ascites contains biologically active ligands capable of supporting cellular functions of cancer cells.
Project description:Peritoneal carcinomatosis with malignant ascites is associated with dismal prognosis in gastric cancer. Malignant ascites is the most relevant body fluid in which to seek diagnostic biomarkers for peritoneal carcinomatosis. We aimed to identify and validate ascites-derived circulating microRNAs (miRNAs) that are differentially expressed between liver cirrhosis-associated benign ascites (LC-ascites) and gastric cancer-associated malignant ascites (GC-ascites). MiRNA expression levels were investigated in three independent cohorts. Overall, 165 ascites samples (73 LC-ascites and 92 GC-ascites) were obtained from the National Biobank of Korea. Initially, microarrays were used to screen the expression levels of 2,006 miRNAs in the discovery cohort (n = 22). Subsequently, quantitative reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) analyses were used to validate the expression levels of selected miRNAs in the training (n = 70) and validation (n= 73) cohorts. In addition, the levels of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), a commonly used tumor marker, were determined in the ascites samples. Expression levels of miR-574-3p, miR-181b-5p, miR-4481, and miR-181d were significantly lower in the GC-ascites samples than in the LC-ascites samples, and miR-181b-5p showed the best diagnostic performance for GC-ascites (area under the curve [AUC] = 0.798 and 0.846 for the training and validation cohorts, respectively). The diagnostic performance of CEA for GC-ascites was improved if CEA and miR-181b-5p were analyzed together (AUC = 0.981 and 0.946 for the training and validation cohorts, respectively). Overall, we identified ascites-derived circulating miRNAs capable of differentiating non-malignant ascites and GC-ascites, and demonstrated that the combined use of miR-181b-5p and CEA produces the optimal diagnostic yield.
Project description:Background: Malignant ascites is often present at diagnostic in women with advanced ovarian cancer (OC) and its presence is associated with a worse outcome. Human peritoneal mesothelial cells (HPMCs) are key components of malignant ascites. Although the interplay between HPMCs and OC cells is believed to be critical for tumor progression, it has not been well characterized. The purpose of this study was to assess the effect of ascites on HPMCs and clarify the role of HPMCs in OC progression. Methods: Human OC ascites and benign peritoneal fluids were assessed for their ability to stimulate HPMC proliferation. Conditioned medium from ascites- and benign fluid-stimulated HPMCs were compared for their ability to attenuate apoptosis induced by TNF-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL). We conducted a comparative analysis of global expression changes in ascites-stimulated HPMCs using Agilent oligonucleotide microarrays. Results: As compared to benign peritoneal fluids, malignant ascites stimulated the proliferation of HPMCs. TRAIL-induced apoptosis was attenuated in OC cells exposed to conditioned medium from ascites-stimulated HPMCs as compared to OC cells exposed to conditioned medium from benign fluid-stimulated HPMCs. A total of 649 genes were differentially expressed in ascites-stimulated HPMCs. Based on a ratio of more than 1.5-fold and a P < 0.05, 484 genes were up-regulated and 165 genes were down-regulated in ascites-exposed HPMCs. Stimulation of HPMCs with OC ascites resulted in differential expression of genes mainly associated with the regulation of cell growth and proliferation, cell death, cell cycle and cell assembly and organization, compared to benign peritoneal fluids. Top networks up-regulated by OC ascites included Akt and NF-M-NM-:B survival pathways whereas vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) pathway was down-regulated. Conclusions: The results of this study not only provide evidence supporting the importance of the interplay between cancer cells and HPMCs but also define the role that the tumor environment plays in these interactions. The expression profiles from human peritoneal mesothelial cells (HPMC) cultures exposed to peritoneal fluids and ovarian cancer ascites were compared using the Agilent Whole Human Genome Oligonucleotide microarrays, containing 44,000 genes. Microarrays were performed on HPMCs exposed to 3 malignant ascites from women with advanced (stage III/IV) serous OC and two benign peritoneal fluids. First, we generated lists of significantly up-regulated and down-regulated genes that were differentially expressed between OC ascites (OVC346, OVC508 and OVC509) and control OV370 peritoneal fluid. Then, the set of genes that were commonly expressed between control peritoneal fluids (OV370 and OV401) were subtracted from the first list of genes to generate a dataset of differentially expressed genes between malignant ascites and benign peritoneal fluids.