Background: Osteosarcoma has been recently redefined as a differentiation disease and its investigation is hampered by broad and complex genetic alterations. Gene expression analysis of two human osteosarcoma cell lines that are dissimilar in tumour differentiation status and osteogenic property would advance our understanding of osteo-sarcomagenesis.
Materials and methods: Gene ontology classification, hierarchical clustering, functional annotation analysis and inspection of transcription factors and their targets were used to examine differences between Saos-2 and U-2 OS cells. Microarray data were verified with real-time quantitative PCR and immunocytochemistry.
Results: Genes from cell binding, cell adhesion and nervous system, as well as some well-known factors of bone formation and osteoblast characterization were identified as being differentially altered in this study.
Conclusion: The osteogenicity of osteosarcoma or the disrupted osteoblast differentiation is correlated to cell binding, cell adhesion and the nervous system, as well as the osteogenic signalling system.