Transcriptomics of vitiligo melanocytes after hydroxychloroquine treatment

Purpose: In order to explore the mechanism of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) in treating vitiligo. We report the application of transcriptome profiling (RNA-seq) in human vitiligo melanocytes cell line PIG3V after HCQ treatment. Methods: The PIG3V cells were divided randomly in two groups: HCQ treatment (1 µg/mL, 24 hours) and the cells without treatment (only medium). RNA samples extracted from PIG3V cells were quantified by NanoDrop and Bioanalyzer. After 2 rounds of purification Poly A RNA was extracted then from total RNA by using Dynabeads Oligo. Small pieces of Poly A RNA were returned through Magnesium RNA Fragmentation Module under the condition of 94? for 5 minutes. Subsequently, SuperScript Reverse Transcriptase was used to reverse-transcribe the cleaved RNA pieces into cDNA. Then, U-labeled second-stranded DNAs was synthesized. After adding of A-base to each strand, preparing for indexed adapters, and heat-labile UDG enzyme treatment, PCR amplification was performed under (1) 95?, 3 minutes; (2) 98?, 15 seconds for 8 cycles; (3) 60?, 15 seconds, 72?, 5 minutes. Ultimately, RNA sequencing was performed according to protocol of Illumina Novaseq™ 6000 (LC-Bio Technology CO., Ltd., Hangzhou, China). After calculation, differential expressed genes were screened by fold change (FC)>2 or FC<0.5 and p value<0.05. Results: Using an optimized data analysis workflow, we mapped about 30 million sequence reads per sample and identified 60612 genes and 229420 transcripts. Approximately 0.3% of the genes showed differential expression between the HCQ treated PIG3V cells and the cells without HCQ, with a fold change>2 or<0.5 , p value<0.05. Conclusions: Our research showed the first detailed transcriptome analysis of human vitiligo melanocytes PIG3V, with or without HCQ treatment. We conclude that RNA-seq based transcriptome characterization would expedite genetic network analyses and permit the dissection of complex biologic mechanisms of HCQ in treating vitiligo. Overall design: mRNA profiles of human vitiligo melanocytes PIG3V treated by hydroxycholoroquine, and PIG3V group without hydroxycholoroquine treatment