Figure 3

Gene expression correlations quantitatively identify better cell line models of cervical tissue. Gene expression correlations were calculated for all cell lines and growth conditions against both normal cervix and cervical cancer. Cell lines were cultured in ATCC recommended media as monolayers. SiHa and HeLa cell lines were also cultured in different media as well as in an organotypic environment. In addition to the organotypic culture, a control was used that left out the fibroblasts, which prevented the epithelial cell line to stack in 3-dimensions. The primary, C4-I, and C4-II cell lines had the highest correlation to cervical cancer and therefore were the better general models of cervical cancer out of the cell lines we tested. Changing the media from MEM to DMEM increased the correlation to cervical cancer for the HeLa and SiHa cell lines, as well as culturing them in an organotypic environment. Error bars were derived from the standard deviation of the correlation of a cell line against each individual patient biopsy.