Gene expression profiling reveals cytoplasmic U1 snRNA accumulation may cause cancers

In this study, we built a model of cytoplasmic aggregation of U1 snRNA in a rat cell line. By comparing the gene expression profiling of U1 snRNA accumulated cells with their controls, 916 (about 4% of 20,000) genes were identified significantly differentially expressed. These 595 over-expressed genes and 321 repressed genes were further analyzed by GO and KEGG pathway enrichment. As a result, three of 12 enriched pathways are well-known cancer pathways, while nine of them were associated to cancers in previous studies. These findings suggest that cytoplasmic U1 snRNA accumulation may cause cancers. These PC-12 cells were sampled for three times (treatment group) and transfected by 4 ug pRIREN-RetroQ vector. The other three samples (control group) were transfected by 4 ug empty pRIREN-RetroQ vectors.