Expression Profiling Of Malignant Melanoma And Validation Of Caspase, IAP, Bcl-2 And Cytokeratin Family Gene Expression

Background and Objectives: Malignant melanoma (MM) is highly aggressive and resistant to various apoptosis-inducing therapeutic agents, indicating severe deregulation of apoptosis in MM. However, the complex anti-apoptotic mechanisms of MM are not well-understood, nor is the overall expression status of apoptosis-related genes in MM. DNA microarrays are powerful tools that provide global, genome-wide information of expression status in pathologic conditions. The present study aims to (1) systematically evaluate the genome-wide expression profile of melanoma cells and human melanocyte, particularly apoptosis-related genes; ( 2 ) to validate the expression status of caspase, IAP, Bcl-2 and cytokeratin family genes at both mRNA and protein levels, and to analyze the relationship between expression these genes with clinicopathological and prognostic parameters; (3) to evaluate changes in cell viability and responses to apoptosis-inducing agent as well as the underlying mechanisms in MM cells by targeting selected over-expressed genes identified by microarray analysis and subsequent...