Peculiarities of molecular events in human glial tumors revealed by serial analysis of gene expression (SAGE).

AIM: To enhance glioblastoma (GB) marker discovery we compared gene expression in glioblastoma with human normal brain (NB). METHODS: Serial analysis of gene expression (SAGE) was used to determine the genes differentially expressed between glioblastoma and human NB by accessing SAGEmap NCBI web site. RESULTS: Of 117 genes with more than 5-fold difference (P less, not similar 0.05) found by comparison of five GB vs. two NB SAGE libraries, 24 had an increased expression in GB. High expression of 10 genes in GB as well as in GB cell lines suggested that expression in the bulk tumors originated from transformed cells. CONCLUSION: Since the highest expression levels of these 24 genes were mostly found in GB, they can be viewed as molecular markers in the analysis of malignant progression of astrocytic tumors.