Neuroblastoma is an embryonal neoplasm that remains of dramatic prognosis in its aggressive forms. Activating mutations of the ALK tyrosine kinase receptor have been identified in sporadic and familial cases of this cancer. We generated knock-in mice carrying the two most frequent Alk mutations observed in neuroblastoma patients. We used microarrays to detail the global programme of gene expression underlying the impact of ALK mutations on neuroblastoma formation in a MYCN amplified background.
Overall design
We selected several murine neuroblastoma tumors for RNA extraction and hybridization on Affymetrix microarrays. We generated three groups of tumors: 10 MYCN amplified tumors, 11 MYCN amplified/ALK F1174L tumors and 10 MYCN amplified/ALK R1275Q tumors.