Gene expression analysis in human malignant melanoma cell lines exposed to carbon beams.

Purpose: To elucidate the molecular changes in response to carbon beams (C-ions) in melanoma.Materials and methods: We examined expression profiles of 6 melanoma cell lines exposed to C-ions or X-rays with 2 Gy using single-color microarrays.Results: Twenty-two genes, including nuclear factor of kappa light polypeptide gene enhancer in B-cells inhibitor, alpha (NFKBIA), responded to C-ions in all six cell lines, based on analysis of variance (ANOVA) filtering (p < 0.001). We found 173 genes that responded in common to C-ions in four cell lines. We identified many down-regulated genes including the cell cycle – related genes that were more responsive to C-ions than X-rays. In contrast, most of the up-regulated genes including the tumor protein p53 (p53) target genes responded to both C-ions and X-rays. C-ions induced G2/M arrest significantly more than X-rays at 30 h (p < 0.05).Conclusion: Our findings suggest that down-regulation of gene expression plays a key role in the response to C-ions. Regulation of...