Radioresistance-related signaling pathways in nasopharyngeal carcinoma cells

Abstract

Objective To study the difference of gene expression profile between the radioresistant human nasopharyngeal carcinoma cell line CNE-2R and CNE-2,and to screen the signaling pathway associated with radioresistance of nasopharyngeal carcinoma.Methods The radioresistant nasopharyngeal carcinoma cell line CNE-2R was constructed from the original cell line CNE-2.CNE-2R and CNE-2 cells were cultured and administered with 60Co γ-ray irradiation at the dose of 400 cGy for 15 times.Human-6v 3.0 whole genome expression profile was used to screen the differentially expressed genes.Bioinformatic analysis was used to identify the pathways related to radioresistance.Results The number of the differentially expressed genes that were found in these 2 experiments was 374.The Kegg pathway and Biocarta pathway analysis of the differentially expressed genes showed the biological importance of Toll-like receptor signaling pathway and IL-1 R-mediated signal transduction pathway to the radioresistance of the CNE-2R cells and the significant differences of 13 genes in these 2 pathways,including JUN,MYD88,CCL5,CXCL10,STAT1,LY96,FOS,CCL3,IL-6,IL-8,IL-1α,IL-1B,and IRAK2(t=13.47-66.57,P<0.05).Conclusions Toll-like receptor signaling pathway and IL-1R-mediated signal transduction pathway might be related to the occurrence of radioresistance. Key words: Nasopharyngeal carcinoma; Signaling pathway; Radioresistance; Gene chip