Phenotypic and Microarray Gene Expression Analysis of Tri-dimensional Raft-modeled Human Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Objectives: To describe the phenotypic and gene expression differences in monolayer and tri-dimensional cultures systems.

Methods: Normal oral epithelial cells (NOEC), primary head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC), and HNSCC cell lines were used to create and study modeled tri-dimensional tissue. Using cDNA microarray analysis, monolayer and raft-modeled tri-dimensional HNSCC cell lines were compared.

Results: NOEC, HNSCC, and both together can be modeled with tri-dimensional differentiation and cytokeratin characteristics analogous to in vivo tissue. Modeling of primary HNSCC resulted in a morphology of invasive HNSCC with areas of direct collagen invasion and MMP2 expression. Gene array analysis suggests that the individual cell lines themselves are the primary gene expression predictor and not the presence of tri-dimensional tissue architecture.

Conclusions: This tissue culture modeling system approximates the differentiation and tri-dimensional structure of in vivo tissues, and that raft modeled tri-dimensional HNSCC does not have a significantly different gene expression profile than the corresponding monolayer culture.