Differential Gene Expression Between African American and European American Colorectal Cancer Patients
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Differential Gene Expression between African American and European American Colorectal Cancer Patients Biljana Jovov1*, Felix Araujo-Perez1, Carlie S. Sigel2, Jeran K. Stratford3, Amber N. McCoy1, Jen Jen Yeh3,4,5, Temitope Keku1 1 Department of Medicine/Gastroenterology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States of America, 2 Department of Pathology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States of America, 3 Department of Pharmacology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States of America, 4 Department of Surgery, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States of America, 5 Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States of America Abstract The incidence and mortality of colorectal cancer (CRC) is higher in African Americans (AAs) than other ethnic groups in the U. S., but reasons for the disparities are unknown. We performed gene expression profiling of sporadic CRCs from AAs vs. European Americans (EAs) to assess the contribution to CRC disparities. We evaluated the gene expression of 43 AA and 43 EA CRC tumors matched by stage and 40 matching normal colorectal tissues using the Agilent human whole genome 4x44K cDNA arrays. Gene and pathway analyses were performed using Significance Analysis of Microarrays (SAM), Ten-fold cross validation, and Ingenuity Pathway Analysis (IPA). SAM revealed that 95 genes were differentially expressed between AA and EA patients at a false discovery rate of #5%. Using IPA we determined that most prominent disease and pathway associations of differentially expressed genes were related to inflammation and immune response. Ten-fold cross validation demonstrated that following 10 genes can predict ethnicity with an accuracy of 94%: CRYBB2, PSPH, ADAL, VSIG10L, C17orf81, ANKRD36B, ZNF835, ARHGAP6, TRNT1 and WDR8. Expression of these 10 genes was validated by qRT-PCR in an independent test set of 28 patients (10 AA, 18 EA). Our results are the first to implicate differential gene expression in CRC racial disparities and indicate prominent difference in CRC inflammation between AA and EA patients. Differences in susceptibility to inflammation support the existence of distinct tumor microenvironments in these two patient populations. Citation: Jovov B, Araujo-Perez F, Sigel CS, Stratford JK, McCoy AN, et al. (2012) Differential Gene Expression between African American and European American Colorectal Cancer Patients. PLoS ONE 7(1): e30168. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0030168 Editor: Hassan Ashktorab, Howard University, United States of America Received March 30, 2011; Accepted December 15, 2011; Published January 19, 2012 Copyright: ß 2012 Jovov et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Funding: This study was supported by grant funding for Gastrointestinal Specialized Program of Research Excellence (GI SPORE, P50 106991) and by the University of North Carolina Center for Gastrointestinal Biology and Disease (CGIBD, P30 DK 34987). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. * E-mail: [email protected] Introduction but also genetic heterogeneity in CRC association in AAs versus EAs [4,10,11,12,13]. Different incidence of MSI and different level Colorectal cancer (CRC) remains the most common gastroin- of methylation for functionally very relevant genes were also testinal cancer in the United States, despite recent improvements reported as a possible factors in CRC racial disparities [8,14,15]. in the diagnosis and treatment of the disease. The incidence and We hypothesized that the gene expression profiles of CRC in mortality rates of CRC for African Americans (AAs) are higher African-American and European-American patients may reveal than in the U.S. general population [1,2]. Many epidemiologic biological differences between the two populations that could and genetic investigations have focused on AAs [3,4,5,6] with the explain the more aggressive cancer phenotype in African- goal of deciphering the reasons for such disparities. Whereas one Americans. Thus, we performed genome-wide gene expression cannot discount the contribution of socioeconomic factors, such as profiling in a large set of tumor samples that were matched for a more advanced stage of disease at diagnosis in AAs, other selected clinical variables. We analyzed our results on gene and biological factors also contribute to the progression of colon cancer pathway levels to identify key differences in tumor biology between [4]; [7]. However, a biological basis for the existence of a more African-American and European-American patients. aggressive CRC in African American patients remains to be further elucidated. Genomic instability is a crucial feature in tumor Methods development and there are at least 3 distinct pathways in CRC pathogenesis: chromosomal instability (CIN), microsatellite insta- Patients bility (MSI), and CpG island methylator phenotype pathways One hundred and fourteen tumors (86 included in original (CIMP) [8,9]. Any or all of these pathways may contribute to a analysis and 28 for validation study) and 40 normal tissues from de- more aggressive CRC biology in African Americans. Recent identified CRC patients were obtained from the Institutional genome-wide association studies in CRC have shown not only Research Board (IRB) approved University of North Carolina strong evidence for common single nucleotide polymorphism (UNC) Tissue Procurement Facility after UNC School of Medicine (SNP) association in a number of genes and chromosomal regions, IRB approval for this study. Written informed consent was obtained PLoS ONE | www.plosone.org 1 January 2012 | Volume 7 | Issue 1 | e30168 Racial Difference in Colon Cancer Gene Expression from all patients. All samples were collected between 1999 and 2008 computes a score for each network according to the fit of the at the time of operation and snap frozen in liquid nitrogen. Patients user’s set of significant genes. The score indicates the likelihood of with known familial adenomatous polyposis and hereditary non- the Focus Genes in a network from Ingenuity’s knowledge base polyposis CRC were excluded. De-identified data including race, being found together due to random chance. A score of 3, as the tumor, node and metastasis (TNM), grade or differentiation, margin cutoff for identifying gene networks, indicates that there is only a status, and survival were available for the majority of patients. 1/1000 chance that the focus genes shown in a network are due to random chance. Therefore, a score of 3 or higher indicates a RNA Isolation and Microarray Hybridization 99.9% confidence level to exclude random chance. All RNA isolation and hybridization was performed on Agilent (Agilent Technologies, Santa Clara, CA) human whole genome Ten-fold Cross Validation (Ten-f-CV) 4X44 K DNA microarrays at UNC. RNA was extracted from Ten-f-CV analysis [21] was used to select smaller representative set macrodissected snap-frozen tumor samples using All prep Kits of genes for validation study by qRT-PCR. Using Ten-f-CV analysis (Qiagen, Valencia, CA) and quantified using Nanodrop spectro- we identified 10 genes that can predict the ethnicity of the patient for photometry (ThermoScientific, Wilmington, DE). RNA quality whom the array was done with an error rate of 6%, suggesting that was assessed with the use of the Bioanalyzer 2100 (Agilent these 10 genes are representative of the entire gene list. Technologies, Santa Clara, CA). RNA was selected for hybrid- ization using RNA integrity number and by inspection of the 18S Quantitative real-time PCR and 28S ribosomal RNA. Similar RNA quality was selected across Validation of microarray results was performed on 28 CRC samples. One microgram of RNA was used as a template for patients (10 AA, and 18 EA). Ten differentially expressed genes cDNA preparation prior to hybridization to Agilent 4X44 K (identified by SAM and selected using the Ten-f-CV method) were whole human genome arrays. cDNA was labeled with Cy5-dUTP validated by qRT-PCR. The hydroxymethylbilane synthase and a reference control (Stratagene; Catalog Number # 740000; (HMBS) gene served as the housekeeping gene [22]. qRT-PCR Agilent Technologies, Santa Clara, CA; [16] was labeled with was performed in duplicates using SYBR Green Gene Expression Cy3-dUTP using the Agilent low RNA input linear amplification Assays (Applied Biosystems, Forester City, CA), which include pre- kit and hybridized overnight at 65uC to Agilent 4X44 K whole optimized primer sets specific for the genes being validated [23]. human genome arrays. Arrays were washed and scanned using an The validated genes were: Crystalline, beta B2 (CRYBB2), Agilent scanner (Agilent Technologies, Santa Clara, CA). phosphoserine phosphatase homologue (PSPH), Adenosine deam- All microarray data are in MIAME compliant form and raw inase-like (ADAL), V-set and immunoglobulin domain containing and processed data has been deposited in the Gene Expression 10 like (VSIG10L), Chromosome 17 open reading frame 81 Omnibus (GEO); see http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo/,