Development of IGF Signaling Antibody Arrays for the Identification of Hepatocellular Carcinoma Biomarkers

PURPOSE: Our objective was to develop a system to simultaneously and quantitatively measure the expression levels of the insulin-like growth factor (IGF) family proteins in numerous samples and to apply this approach to profile the IGF family proteins levels in cancer and adjacent tissues from patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN: Antibodies against ten IGF family proteins (IGF-1, IGF-1R, IGF-2, IGF-2R, IGFBP-1, IGFBP-2, IGFBP-3, IGFBP-4, IGFBP-6, and Insulin) were immobilized on the surface of a glass slide in an array format to create an IGF signaling antibody array. Tissue lysates prepared from patient's liver cancer tissues and adjacent tissues were then applied to the arrays. The proteins captured by antibodies on the arrays were then incubated with a cocktail of biotinylated detection antibodies and visualized with a fluorescence detection system. By comparison with standard protein amount, the exact protein concentrations in the samples can be determined. The expression levels of the ten IGF family proteins in 25 pairs of HCC and adjacent tissues were quantitatively measured using this novel antibody array technology. The differential expression levels between cancer tissues and adjacent tissues were statistically analyzed. RESULTS: A novel IGF signaling antibody array was developed which allows the researcher to simultaneously detect ten proteins involved in IGF signal pathway with high sensitivity and specificity. Using this approach, we found that the levels of IGF-2R and IGFBP-2 in HCC tissues were higher than those in adjacent tissues. CONCLUSION: Our IGF signaling antibody array which can detect the expression of ten IGF family members with high sensitivity and specificity will undoubtedly prove a powerful tool for drug and biomarker discovery.