Microarrays Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Microarrays, including details on experiments, designs, statistics, analysis, software.

Microarray analysis of gene expression in chondrosarcoma cells treated with bee venom.

Yin CS, Lee HJ, Hong SJ, Chung JH, Koh HG

Department of Acupuncture, Kyung Hee University Hospital, 1 Hoegi-dong, Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul, 130-702, South Korea.

Bee venom (BV) has a broad array of clinical applications in Korean medicine, including treatment of inflammatory conditions such as arthritis. The final common pathway of many arthropathies is the destruction of articular cartilage and consequent loss of articular function. Chondrocyte dysfunction plays a key role in the pathogenesis of such disorders. To explore the global gene expression profiles in a human chondrocyte-like cell line treated with BV, microarray analysis was performed. The HTB-94 human chondrosarcoma cells were treated with BV, lipopolysaccharide (LPS), or both. Of the 344 genes profiled in this study, with a cut-off level of 4-fold change in the expression, (1) 35 were downregulated following BV treatment, (2) 16 were upregulated and 7 downregulated following LPS treatment, and (3) 32 were downregulated following co-stimulation of BV and LPS. The results of the present study shows that treatment of BV reversed the LPS-induced upregulation of such genes as interleukin-6 (IL-6) receptor, matrix metalloproteinase 15 (MMP-15), tumor necrosis factor (ligand) superfamily-10, caspase-6 and tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase-1 (TIMP-1). It is thought that microarrays will play an ever-growing role in the advance of our understanding of the pharmacologic actions of BV in the treatment of arthritis.

Published 7 December 2004 in Toxicon, 45(1): 81-91.
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