Soft tissue sarcomas involve the connective tissues of the limbs, girdle, trunk, head and neck. Despite the numerous subtypes of sarcomas (synovial sarcoma, fibrosarcoma and malignant fibrous histiocytoma), tumours in a particular subtype behave in a reasonably consistent fashion, allowing predictions of recurrence and metastasis. Histological and cytogenetic techniques can group most sarcomas; however, the diagnosis can be problematic and must be performed by experts. We are using DNA microarrays to analyse the expression pattern of genes in soft tissue to identify expression signatures specific to the various sarcoma subtypes.

Our DNA expression arrays are based on cDNAs from the UniGene set of ESTs. PCR products from an initial set of 3740 cDNAs were gridded onto poly-L-lysine-coated glass microscope slides at a density of 378 spots/cm2. Hybridisations were performed using Cy3- and Cy5-labelled first strand cDNA from cell lines or sarcomas. After washing, the arrays were scanned using a General Scanning Scanarray3000 scanner. The results of this work will be discussed.