A class of genes in the HER2 regulon that is poised for transcription in breast cancer cell lines and expressed in human breast tumors

HER2-positive breast cancer accounts for 25% of all cases and has a poor prognosis. Although progress has been made in understanding signal transduction, little is known of how HER2 achieves gene regulation. We performed whole genome expression analysis on a HER2(+) and HER2(−) breast cancer cell lines and compared these results to expression in 812 primary tumors stratified by their HER2 expression level. Chip-on-chip with anti-RNA polymerase II was compared among breast cancer cell lines to identify genes that are potentially activated by HER2. The expression levels of these HER2-dependent POL II binding genes were determined for the 812 HER2+/− breast cancer tissues. Genes differentially expressed between HER2+/− cell lines were generally regulated in the same direction as in breast cancer tissues. We identified genes that had POLII binding in HER2(+) cell lines, but without significant gene expression. Of 737 such genes “poised” for expression in cell lines, 113 genes were significantly differentially expressed in breast tumors in a HER2-dependent manner. Pathway analysis of these 113 genes revealed that a large group of genes were associated with stem cell and progenitor cell control as indicated by networks centered on NANOG, SOX2, OCT3/4. HER2 directs POL II binding to a large number of genes in breast cancer cells. A “poised” class of genes in HER2(+) cell lines with POLII binding and low RNA expression but is differentially expressed in primary tumors, strongly suggests a role of the microenvironment and further suggests a role for stem cells proliferation in HER2-regulated breast cancer tissue.