Figure 1

The expression pattern of miRNAs in normal melanocytes and melanoma cell lines, and the organization of the 14q32 imprinted region. (A) Heat map representing a cluster analysis of the logarithm of the normalized values of ~800 miRNAs embedded on a commercial array in normal melanocytes (two samples) and five different melanoma cell lines. (B) The expression levels of five different miRNAs using qRT-PCR (black) or data obtained from the array (grey). Data is represented as mean±SEM, * signifies p < 0.05 (C) The organization of the Dlk-Gtl2 region on human chromosome 14q32. The positions of miRNAs within this region are marked in rectangular boxes. The maternal allele is colored pink; the paternal allele is colored light-blue. The blue boxes signify paternally-expressed transcripts, and the red boxed signify maternally-expressed transcripts. The direction of transcription is marked with an arrow. The color of the hairpin at the IG-DMR illustrates the methylation status at the region; black – methylated, white hypo-methylated. (D) The expression levels of four miRNAs from the chromosome-14q32-cluster in normal melanocytes (NHEM), benign nevi (NEV) and melanoma samples (MEL) using qRT-PCR. Data is normalized relative to NHEM and is represented as mean±SEM, * signifies p < 0.05.