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©The Author(s) 2017. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
Integrated analysis of microRNA and mRNA expression profiles in HBx-expressing hepatic cells
Ruo-Chan Chen, Juan Wang, Xu-Yuan Kuang, Fang Peng, Yong-Ming Fu, Yan Huang, Ning Li, Xue-Gong Fan
Ruo-Chan Chen, Juan Wang, Yong-Ming Fu, Yan Huang, Xue-Gong Fan, Hunan Key Laboratory of Viral Hepatitis, Department of Infectious Disease, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha 410008, Hunan Province, China
Xu-Yuan Kuang, Department of Hyperbaric Oxygen, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha 410008, Hunan Province, China
Fang Peng, Key Laboratory of Cancer Proteomics of Chinese Ministry of Health, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha 410008, Hunan Province, China
Ning Li, Department of Blood Transfusion, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha 410008, Hunan Province, China
Author contributions: Li N and Fan XG designed the study and contributed equally to this work; Li N is a co-corresponding author of this article; Chen RC, Wang J, Kuang XY, Peng F, Fu YM and Huang Y collected and analyzed the data; Chen RC and Li N wrote the manuscript; all authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Supported by the National Natural Sciences Foundation of China, No. 81272253, No. 81502098 and No. 81670538; and the Special National International Technology Cooperation of China, No. 2015DFA31490.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
Data sharing statement: All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article (and its supplementary information files).
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Xue-Gong Fan, MD, PhD, Professor of Infectious Disease, Hunan Key Laboratory of Viral Hepatitis, Department of Infectious Disease, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, No.87 Xiangya Road, Changsha 410008, Hunan Province, China. xgfan@hotmail.com
Telephone: +86-13975163388
Received: November 15, 2016
Peer-review started: November 16, 2016
First decision: December 19, 2016
Revised: January 17, 2017
Accepted: February 16, 2017
Article in press: February 17, 2017
Published online: March 14, 2017
AIM
To identify the miRNA-mRNA regulatory network in hepatitis B virus X (HBx)-expressing hepatic cells.
METHODS
A stable HBx-expressing human liver cell line L02 was established. The mRNA and miRNA expression profiles of L02/HBx and L02/pcDNA liver cells were identified by RNA-sequencing analysis. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathway enrichment analysis was performed to investigate the function of candidate biomarkers, and the relationship between miRNA and mRNA was studied by network analysis.
RESULTS
Compared with L02/pcDNA cells, 742 unregulated genes and 501 downregulated genes were determined as differentially expressed in L02/HBx cells. Gene ontology analysis suggested that the differentially expressed genes were relevant to different biological processes. Concurrently, 22 differential miRNAs were also determined in L02/HBx cells. Furthermore, integrated analysis of miRNA and mRNA expression profiles identified a core miRNA-mRNA regulatory network that is correlated with the carcinogenic role of HBx.
CONCLUSION
Collectively, the miRNA-mRNA network-based analysis could be useful to elucidate the potential role of HBx in liver cell malignant transformation and shed light on the underlying molecular mechanism and novel therapy targets for hepatocellular carcinoma.
Core tip: A number of miRNAs have been identified to be substantially involved in hepatocellular carcinoma cell proliferation, migration and invasion. Thus, an integrated analysis of the expression and function of miRNA and mRNA makes it possible to successfully identify the predicted miRNA-target network pattern and functional candidates of miRNA-mRNA pairs associated with HBx-related hepatocarcinogenesis.
