Expression data from human melanocyte BRAF kinase activated

Both benign nevi and melanomas exhibit high rates of activating mutations in BRAF kinase, suggesting that this event is important for melanocyte proliferation and melanoma initiation in vivo; however, the precise mechanism of BRAF kinase action in these lesions remains to be elucidated. We have used comprehensive gene expression profiling to evaluate the downstream effectors of activated BRAFV600E kinase in primary human melanocytes and identified a dominant proliferative target gene signature for BRAF kinase in these cells.

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