Expression Profiling of Calcium Induced Genes in Cultured Human Keratinocytes

• Published in: Journal of Korean medical science Vol. 25; no. 4; pp. 619 - 625
• Main Authors: Lee, Jung-Suk, Kim, Mi-Rang, Kim, Nam-Soon, Kim, Yong Sung, Yang, Jun-Mo, Cho, Ah Young, Lee, Young, Kim, Chang Deok, Lee, Jeung-Hoon
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Korea (South) The Korean Academy of Medical Sciences 01.04.2010; 대한의학회
• Subjects: Calcium - metabolism; Cells, Cultured; Chromosome Mapping; Chromosomes, Human; Expressed Sequence Tags; Gene Expression Profiling; Gene Expression Regulation; Gene Library; Humans; Keratinocytes - cytology; Keratinocytes - physiology; Molecular Sequence Data; Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; Original; 의학일반; Normalized Library; Gene Expression Profiling; Calcium; Keratinocyte Differentiation
• ISSN: 1011-8934; 1598-6357; 1598-6357
• DOI: 10.3346/jkms.2010.25.4.619

Terminal differentiation of skin keratinocytes is a vertically directed multi-step process that is tightly controlled by the sequential expression of a variety of genes. To examine the gene expression profile in calcium-induced keratinocyte differentiation, we constructed a normalized cDNA library using mRNA isolated from these calcium-treated keratinocytes. After sequencing about 10,000 clones, we were able to obtain 4,104 independent genes. They consisted of 3,699 annotated genes and 405 expressed sequence tags (ESTs). Some were the genes involved in constituting epidermal structures and others were unknown genes that are probably associated with keratinocytes. In particular, we were able to identify genes located at the chromosome 1q21, the locus for the epidermal differentiation complex, and 19q13.1, another probable locus for epidermal differentiation-related gene clusters. One EST located at the chromosome 19q13.1 showed increased expression by calcium treatment, suggesting a novel candidate gene relevant to keratinocyte differentiation. These results demonstrate the complexity of the transcriptional profile of keratinocytes, providing important clues on which to base further investigations of the molecular events underlying keratinocyte differentiation.