Chromosomal instability, manifesting as copy number alterations (CNAs), is characteristic of pancreatic adenocarcinoma. We used bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) array-based comparative genomic hybridization (aCGH) to examine the pancreatic adenocarcinoma genome for submicroscopic amplifications and
deletions. Profiles of 33 samples (
17 first-passage xenografts and
16 cell lines) identified numerous chromosomal regions with CNAs, including losses at
1p36.33
p34.3,
1p
13.3
p
13.2, 3p26, 3p25.2
p22.3, 3p22.
1p
14.
1, 4q28.3, 4q3
1, 4q35.
1, 5q
14.3, 6p, 6q, 8p23.3
p
12, 9p, 9q22.32
q3
1.
1,
13q33.2,
15q
11.2,
16p
13.3,
17p,
18q
11.2
1q23 ,
19p
13.3
p
13.
12,
19q
13.2, 2
1p, 2
1q, and 22p, 2
2q and gains at 7p2
1.
1p
11.2, 7q3
1.32, 7q33, 8q
11.
1q24,
11p
13,
14q22.2, 20p
12.2, and 20q
11.23
q
13.33. Novel regions containing CNAs were identified and refined by combining the increased resolution of our BAC CGH array with a statistical algorithm developed for assigning significance values to altered BACs across samples. A subset of array-based CNAs was validated using polymerase chain reaction
13;based techniques, immunohistochemistry and fluorescence in situ hybridization. BAC aCGH proved to be a powerful genome-wide strategy to identify molecular alterations in pancreatic cancer and to distinguish differences between cell line and xenograft aberration profiles. These findings should greatly facilitate further research in understanding the pathogenesis of this lethal disease, and could lead to the identification of novel therapeutic targets and biomarkers for early detection.