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Background: Metastatic melanoma requires early detection, being treatment resistant. However, the earliest events of melanoma metastasis, and especially of dermal invasion, remain ill defined., Results and Methods: Gene expression profiles of two clonal subpopulations, selected from the same human melanoma cell line, but differing in ability to cross the dermal-epidermal junction in skin reconstructs, were compared by oligonucleotide microarray. Of 26 496 cDNA probes, 461 were differentially expressed (>2-fold; P< 0.001), only 71 genes being upregulated in invasive cells. Among them, TSPAN8, a tetraspanin not yet described in melanoma, was upregulated at mRNA and protein levels in melanoma cells from the invasive clone, as assessed by RT-PCR, flow cytometry and western blot analysis. Interestingly, TSPAN8 was the only tetraspanin in which overexpression correlated with invasive phenotype. Flow cytometry of well-defined melanoma cell lines confirmed that TSPAN8 was exclusively expressed by invasive, but not non-invasive melanoma cells or normal melanocytes. Immunohistochemistry revealed that TSPAN8 was expressed by melanoma cells in primary melanomas and metastases, but not epidermal cells in healthy skin. The functional role of TSPAN8 was demonstrated by silencing endogenous TSPAN8 with siRNA, reducing invasive outgrowth from tumour spheroids within matrigel without affecting cell proliferation or survival., Conclusion: TSPAN8 expression may enable melanoma cells to cross the cutaneous basement membrane, leading to dermal invasion and progression to metastasis. TSPAN8 could be a promising target in early detection and treatment of melanoma.

Background: The general population is constantly exposed to low levels of radiation through natural, occupational or medical irradiation. Even if the biological effects of low-level radiation have been intensely debated and investigated, the molecular mechanisms underlying the cellular response to low doses remain largely unknown., Results: The present study investigated the role of GATA3 protein in the control of the cellular and molecular response of human keratinocytes exposed to a 1 cGy dose of X-rays. Chromatin immunoprecipitation showed GATA3 to be able to bind the promoter of 4 genes responding to a 1 cGy exposure. To go further into the role of GATA3 after ionizing radiation exposure, we studied the cellular and molecular consequences of radiation in GATA3 knock-down cells. Knock-down was obtained by lentiviral-mediated expression of an shRNA targeting the GATA3 transcript in differentiated keratinocytes. First, radiosensitivity was assessed: the toxicity, in terms of immediate survival (with XTT test), associated with 1 cGy radiation was found to be increased in GATA3 knock-down cells. The impact of GATA3 knock-down on the transcriptome of X-ray irradiated cells was also investigated, using oligonucleotide microarrays to assess changes between 3 h and 72 h post-irradiation in normal vs GATA3 knock-down backgrounds; transcriptome response was found to be completely altered in GATA3 knock-down cells, with a strong induction/repression peak 48 h after irradiation. Functional annotation revealed enrichment in genes known to be involved in chaperone activity, TGFbeta signalling and stress response., Conclusion: Taken together, these data indicate that GATA3 is an important regulator of the cellular and molecular response of epidermal cells to very low doses of radiation.

The comparison of the gene expression profiles between two subpopulations of melanoma cells (1C8 and T1C3) derived from the tumor of one patient by cDNA array revealed differences in GAPDH and beta-actin gene levels. These two housekeeping genes were up-regulated in invasive T1C3 melanoma cells compared to noninvasive 1C8 cells. Since cDNA array results were not confirmed by conventional RT-PCR throughout the exponential phase of amplification, we performed duplex relative RT-PCR using ribosomal 18S RNA as internal standard including competimer technology. Statistical analyses provided significant evidence that invasive T1C3 melanoma cells exhibited a twofold higher mRNA level of both GAPDH and beta-actin than noninvasive 1C8 cells. This study demonstrates that the duplex relative RT-PCR procedure including ribosomal 18S RNA as internal standard and competimer technology is precise for RNA quantification and is tailored for cDNA array validation. Our data provide molecular evidence that cellular subpopulations of the same pathological origin are highly heterogeneous and extend the concept that the selection of an appropriate internal control for comparative mRNA analysis should be adapted to each model of human cancers., (Copyright 2001 Academic Press.)