Project description:Background: In vitro models are an essential tool towards understanding the molecular characteristics of colorectal cancer (CRC) and the testing of therapies for CRC. To this end we established 21 novel CRC cell lines of which six were derived from liver metastases. Extensive genetic, genomic, transcriptomic and methylomic profiling was performed in order to characterize these new cell lines and all data is made publically available. Additionally, sensitivity of oxaliplatin was tested as a measure for chemotherapy resistance. Results: DNA copy-number alterations (CNA) were compared between primary and metastasis derived cell lines. In concordance with previous studies copy-number gain of chr20, and loss of chr8p were found highly specific for liver metastases. Previously reported BRAF-mutation associated DNA methylation profiles could be validated on the genome-wide DNA methylation profiles of these cell lines. 47.6% of the loci previously reported to associate with BRAF mutation status were reproduced in this dataset. When examining the gene expression profiles in conjunction with these DNA methylation results, we identified 20 genes of which the gene expression correlated with the DNA methylation status, including MEIS1, LRAT and STC2. These genes have previously been reported to be subject to transcriptional regulation through DNA hypermethylation, validating our approach. Conclusions: By combining mutation profiles with CNA and gene expression profiles we constructed an overview of the alterations in the major CRC-related signalling pathways. The mutation profiles, along with the genome, transcriptome and methylome data of these cell lines will be made publically available . This combined dataset puts these cell lines among the best characterized CRC cell lines, allowing researchers to select appropriate cell line models for their particular experiment, making optimal use of these novel cell lines as in vitro model for CRC.
Project description:Background: In vitro models are an essential tool towards understanding the molecular characteristics of colorectal cancer (CRC) and the testing of therapies for CRC. To this end we established 21 novel CRC cell lines of which six were derived from liver metastases. Extensive genetic, genomic, transcriptomic and methylomic profiling was performed in order to characterize these new cell lines and all data is made publically available. Additionally, sensitivity of oxaliplatin was tested as a measure for chemotherapy resistance. Results: By combining mutation profiles with CNA and gene expression profiles we constructed an overview of the alterations in the major CRC-related signalling pathways. The mutation profiles, along with the genome, transcriptome and methylome data of these cell lines will be made publically available . This combined dataset puts these cell lines among the best characterized CRC cell lines, allowing researchers to select appropriate cell line models for their particular experiment, making optimal use of these novel cell lines as in vitro model for CRC. Conclusions: By combining mutation profiles with CNA and gene expression profiles we constructed an overview of the alterations in the major CRC-related signalling pathways. The mutation profiles, along with the genome, transcriptome and methylome data of these cell lines will be made publically available . This combined dataset puts these cell lines among the best characterized CRC cell lines, allowing researchers to select appropriate cell line models for their particular experiment, making optimal use of these novel cell lines as in vitro model for CRC.
Project description:In vitro models are essential to understanding the molecular characteristics of colorectal cancer (CRC) and the testing of therapies for CRC. Many efforts to establish and characterize primary CRC cell lines have been published, most describing a small number of novel cell lines. However, there remains a lack of a large panel of uniformly established and characterized cell lines. To this end we established 20 novel CRC cell lines, of which six were derived from liver metastases. Genetic, genomic and transcriptomic profiling was performed in order to characterize these new cell lines. All data are made publically available upon publication.By combining mutation profiles with CNA and gene expression profiles, we generated an overall profile of the alterations in the major CRC-related signaling pathways. The combination of mutation profiles with genome, transcriptome and methylome data means that these low passage cell lines are among the best characterized of all CRC cell lines. This will allow researchers to select model cell lines appropriate to specific experiments, facilitating the optimal use of these cell lines as in vitro models for CRC. All cell lines are available for further research.
Project description:Background: In vitro models are an essential tool towards understanding the molecular characteristics of colorectal cancer (CRC) and the testing of therapies for CRC. To this end we established 21 novel CRC cell lines of which six were derived from liver metastases. Extensive genetic, genomic, transcriptomic and methylomic profiling was performed in order to characterize these new cell lines and all data is made publically available. Additionally, sensitivity of oxaliplatin was tested as a measure for chemotherapy resistance. Results: DNA copy-number alterations (CNA) were compared between primary and metastasis derived cell lines. In concordance with previous studies copy-number gain of chr20, and loss of chr8p were found highly specific for liver metastases. Previously reported BRAF-mutation associated DNA methylation profiles could be validated on the genome-wide DNA methylation profiles of these cell lines. 47.6% of the loci previously reported to associate with BRAF mutation status were reproduced in this dataset. When examining the gene expression profiles in conjunction with these DNA methylation results, we identified 20 genes of which the gene expression correlated with the DNA methylation status, including MEIS1, LRAT and STC2. These genes have previously been reported to be subject to transcriptional regulation through DNA hypermethylation, validating our approach. Conclusions: By combining mutation profiles with CNA and gene expression profiles we constructed an overview of the alterations in the major CRC-related signalling pathways. The mutation profiles, along with the genome, transcriptome and methylome data of these cell lines will be made publically available . This combined dataset puts these cell lines among the best characterized CRC cell lines, allowing researchers to select appropriate cell line models for their particular experiment, making optimal use of these novel cell lines as in vitro model for CRC. SNP-array analysis of 21 novel CRC cell lines; 16 with Illumina HumanExome-12 v1.2 BeadChip and 5 with Illumina HumanExome-12 v1.0 BeadChip.
Project description:Background: In vitro models are an essential tool towards understanding the molecular characteristics of colorectal cancer (CRC) and the testing of therapies for CRC. To this end we established 21 novel CRC cell lines of which six were derived from liver metastases. Extensive genetic, genomic, transcriptomic and methylomic profiling was performed in order to characterize these new cell lines and all data is made publically available. Additionally, sensitivity of oxaliplatin was tested as a measure for chemotherapy resistance. Results: By combining mutation profiles with CNA and gene expression profiles we constructed an overview of the alterations in the major CRC-related signalling pathways. The mutation profiles, along with the genome, transcriptome and methylome data of these cell lines will be made publically available . This combined dataset puts these cell lines among the best characterized CRC cell lines, allowing researchers to select appropriate cell line models for their particular experiment, making optimal use of these novel cell lines as in vitro model for CRC. Conclusions: By combining mutation profiles with CNA and gene expression profiles we constructed an overview of the alterations in the major CRC-related signalling pathways. The mutation profiles, along with the genome, transcriptome and methylome data of these cell lines will be made publically available . This combined dataset puts these cell lines among the best characterized CRC cell lines, allowing researchers to select appropriate cell line models for their particular experiment, making optimal use of these novel cell lines as in vitro model for CRC. SNP-array analysis of 21 novel CRC cell lines; 16 with Illumina HumanExome-12 v1.2 BeadChip and 5 with Illumina HumanExome-12 v1.0.
Project description:A "shotgun" lipidomics strategy consisting of sequential functional group selective chemical modification reactions coupled with high-resolution/accurate mass spectrometry and "targeted" tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) analysis has been developed and applied toward the comprehensive identification, characterization and quantitative analysis of changes in relative abundances of >600 individual glycerophospholipid, glycerolipid, sphingolipid and sterol lipids between a primary colorectal cancer (CRC) cell line, SW480, and its isogenic lymph node metastasized derivative, SW620. Selective chemical derivatization of glycerophosphoethanolamine and glycerophosphoserine lipids using a "fixed charge" sulfonium ion containing, d(6)-S,S'-dimethylthiobutanoylhydroxysuccinimide ester (d(6)-DMBNHS) reagent was used to eliminate the possibility of isobaric mass overlap of these species with the precursor ions of all other lipids in the crude extracts, thereby enabling their unambiguous assignment, while subsequent selective mild acid hydrolysis of plasmenyl (vinyl-ether) containing lipids using formic acid enabled these species to be readily differentiated from isobaric mass plasmanyl (alkyl-ether) containing lipids. Using this approach, statistically significant differences in the abundances of numerous lipid species previously identified as being associated with cancer progression or that play known roles as mediators in a range of physiological and pathological processes were observed between the SW480 and SW620 cells. Most notably, these included increased plasmanylcholine and triglyceride lipid levels, decreased plasmenylethanolamine lipids, decreased C-16 containing sphingomyelin and ceramide lipid levels, and a dramatic increase in the abundances of total cholesterol ester and triglyceride lipids in the SW620 cells compared to those in the SW480 cells.
Project description:Previous studies have uncovered several transcription factors that determine biological alterations in tumor cells to execute the invasion-metastasis cascade, including the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). We sought to investigate the role of miR-21 in colorectal cancer regulation. For this purpose, miR-21 expression was quantified in a panel of colorectal cancer cell lines and clinical specimens. High expression was found in cell lines with EMT properties and in the vast majority of human tumor specimens. We demonstrate in a cell-specific manner the occupancy of MIR-21 gene promoter by AP-1 and ETS1 transcription factors and, for the first time, the pattern of histone posttranslational modifications necessary for miR-21 overexpression. We also show that Integrin-β4 (ITGβ4), exclusively expressed in polarized epithelial cells, is a novel miR-21 target gene and plays a role in the regulation of EMT, since it is remarkably de-repressed after transient miR-21 silencing and downregulated after miR-21 overexpression. miR-21-dependent change of ITGβ4 expression significantly affects cell migration properties of colon cancer cells. Finally, in a subgroup of tumor specimens, ROC curve analysis performed on quantitative PCR data sets for miR-21, ITGβ4, and PDCD4 shows that the combination of high miR-21 with low ITGβ4 and PDCD4 expression is able to predict presence of metastasis. In conclusion, miR-21 is a key player in oncogenic EMT, its overexpression is controlled by the cooperation of genetic and epigenetic alterations, and its levels, along with ITGβ4 and PDCD4 expression, could be exploited as a prognostic tool for CRC metastasis.
Project description:BackgroundColorectal cancer (CRC) cell lines are widely used pre-clinical model systems. Comprehensive insights into their molecular characteristics may improve model selection for biomedical studies.MethodsWe have performed DNA, RNA and protein profiling of 34 cell lines, including (i) targeted deep sequencing (n = 612 genes) to detect single nucleotide variants and insertions/deletions; (ii) high resolution DNA copy number profiling; (iii) gene expression profiling at exon resolution; (iv) small RNA expression profiling by deep sequencing; and (v) protein expression analysis (n = 297 proteins) by reverse phase protein microarrays.ResultsThe cell lines were stratified according to the key molecular subtypes of CRC and data were integrated at two or more levels by computational analyses. We confirm that the frequencies and patterns of DNA aberrations are associated with genomic instability phenotypes and that the cell lines recapitulate the genomic profiles of primary carcinomas. Intrinsic expression subgroups are distinct from genomic subtypes, but consistent at the gene-, microRNA- and protein-level and dominated by two distinct clusters; colon-like cell lines characterized by expression of gastro-intestinal differentiation markers and undifferentiated cell lines showing upregulation of epithelial-mesenchymal transition and TGFβ signatures. This sample split was concordant with the gene expression-based consensus molecular subtypes of primary tumors. Approximately ¼ of the genes had consistent regulation at the DNA copy number and gene expression level, while expression of gene-protein pairs in general was strongly correlated. Consistent high-level DNA copy number amplification and outlier gene- and protein- expression was found for several oncogenes in individual cell lines, including MYC and ERBB2.ConclusionsThis study expands the view of CRC cell lines as accurate molecular models of primary carcinomas, and we present integrated multi-level molecular data of 34 widely used cell lines in easily accessible formats, providing a resource for preclinical studies in CRC.
Project description:Metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) remains challenging because of the emergence of resistance mechanisms to anti-epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) therapeutics, so more effective strategies to improve the patients' outcome are needed. During the last decade, the application of a multi-omics approach has contributed to a deeper understanding of the complex molecular landscape of human CRC, identifying a plethora of drug targets for precision medicine. Target validation relies on the use of experimental models that would retain the molecular and clinical features of human colorectal cancer, thus mirroring the clinical characteristics of patients. In particular, organoids and patient-derived-xenografts (PDXs), as well as genetically engineered mouse models (GEMMs) and patient-derived orthotopic xenografts (PDOXs), should be considered for translational purposes. Overall, omics and advanced mouse models of cancer represent a portfolio of sophisticated biological tools that, if optimized for use in concert with accurate data analysis, could accelerate the anticancer discovery process and provide new weapons against cancer. In this review, we highlight success reached following the integration of omics and experimental models; moreover, results produced by our group in the field of mCRC are also presented.