Objective: To investigate the differential expression profiles of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) in human liver cell line LO2 with stable expression of hepatitis B x (HBx) gene, and to screen out the lncRNAs which play an important role in HBV-related liver cancer.
Methods: The lncRNA microarray was used to establish the differential expression profiles of lncRNAs, and the methods such as scatter plots and cluster analysis were used to obtain the HBx-related lncRNAs with differential expression. The qRT-PCR was used to verify some lncRNAs with differential expression. The t-test was used to compare the expression of lncRNAs between the two microarray groups, and hierarchical cluster analysis was used for the original data of lncRNAs with differential expression.
Results: Compared with the control group transfected with blank plasmids (L02/pcDNA3.0), LO2/HBx cells had 323 lncRNAs with > 2-fold upregulation and 421 lncRNAs whose expression was reduced by more than 50% (P < 0.05). The results of qRT-PCR verified 4 upregulated lncRNAs (TCONS_00006195, ENST00000557524, NR_037597, and ENST00000539975) and 3 downregulated lncRNAs (ENST00000508424, ENST00000447433, and uc001lva.4), which were consistent with the results of microassay.
Conclusion: HBx-related lncRNAs are successfully screened out, which lays a foundation for further investigation of the role of lncRNAs in the pathogenesis of liver cancer.