Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Gene expression changes in human lung cells exposed to arsenic, chromium, nickel or vanadium indicate the first steps in cancer

Gene expression changes in human lung cells exposed to arsenic, chromium, nickel or vanadium... The complex process of carcinogenesis begins with transformation of a single cell to favor aberrant traits such as loss of contact inhibition and unregulated proliferation – features found in every cancer. Despite cancer's widespread prevalence, the early events that initiate cancer remain elusive, and without knowledge of these events cancer prevention is difficult. Here we show that exposure to As, Cr, Ni, or vanadium (V) promotes changes in gene expression that occur in conjunction with aberrant growth. We exposed immortalized human bronchial epithelial cells to one of four metals/metalloid for four to eight weeks and selected transformed clonal populations based upon anchorage independent growth of single cells in soft agar. We detected a metal-specific footprint of cancer-related gene expression that was consistent across multiple transformed clones. These gene expression changes persisted in the absence of the progenitor metal for numerous cell divisions. Our results show that even a brief exposure to a carcinogenic metal may cause many changes in gene expression in the exposed cells, and that from these many changes, the specific change(s) that each metal causes that initiate cancer likely arise. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Metallomics Royal Society of Chemistry

Gene expression changes in human lung cells exposed to arsenic, chromium, nickel or vanadium indicate the first steps in cancer

Loading next page...
 
/lp/royal-society-of-chemistry/gene-expression-changes-in-human-lung-cells-exposed-to-arsenic-0Mm2ZBoLtI

References (54)

Publisher
Royal Society of Chemistry
Copyright
This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry
ISSN
1756-5901
eISSN
1756-591X
DOI
10.1039/c2mt20074k
pmid
22714537
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

The complex process of carcinogenesis begins with transformation of a single cell to favor aberrant traits such as loss of contact inhibition and unregulated proliferation – features found in every cancer. Despite cancer's widespread prevalence, the early events that initiate cancer remain elusive, and without knowledge of these events cancer prevention is difficult. Here we show that exposure to As, Cr, Ni, or vanadium (V) promotes changes in gene expression that occur in conjunction with aberrant growth. We exposed immortalized human bronchial epithelial cells to one of four metals/metalloid for four to eight weeks and selected transformed clonal populations based upon anchorage independent growth of single cells in soft agar. We detected a metal-specific footprint of cancer-related gene expression that was consistent across multiple transformed clones. These gene expression changes persisted in the absence of the progenitor metal for numerous cell divisions. Our results show that even a brief exposure to a carcinogenic metal may cause many changes in gene expression in the exposed cells, and that from these many changes, the specific change(s) that each metal causes that initiate cancer likely arise.

Journal

MetallomicsRoyal Society of Chemistry

Published: May 31, 2012

There are no references for this article.