Integrative molecular characterization of head and neck cancer cell model genomes.

BACKGROUND

Cell lines are invaluable model systems for the investigation of cancer. Knowledge of the molecular alterations that exist within cell models is required to define the mechanisms governing cellular phenotypes.

METHODS

Five tongue squamous cell carcinomas cell lines and 1 submaxillary salivary gland epidermoid carcinoma cell line were analyzed for copy number and mRNA expression by tiling-path DNA microarrays and Agilent Whole Human Genome Oligoarrays, respectively.

RESULTS

Integrative analysis of genetic and expression alterations revealed the molecular landscape of each cell line. Molecular results for individual cell lines and across all samples have been summarized and made available for easy reference.

CONCLUSION

Our integrative genomic analyses have defined the DNA and RNA alterations for each individual line. These data will be useful to anyone modeling oral cancer behavior, providing a molecular context that will be useful for deciphering cell phenotypes.