The effect of EPO on gene expression signatures of hepatocellular carcinoma cells

To gain further insight into the downstream effects of EPO signaling on HCC cells, we have employed whole genome microarray expression profiling as a discovery platform to identify genes with the potential to illustrate EPO-induced the proliferation of HCC cells. 1×10e6 7721-EPOR cells were plated in 6 cm dishes and starved for 8 hours and then treated with either NS or EPO (10 IU/ml) for 16 hours. Total RNA was extracted and profiled using oligo microarrays. Differentially expressed genes were then identified through fold change as well as P value calculated with t-test. The threshold set for up- and down-regulated genes was a fold change>= 2.0 and a P value<= 0.05. Afterwards, GO analysis and KEGG analysis were applied to determine the roles of these differentially expressed mRNAs. EPO treated HCC cells up-regulated 14 genes expression and down-regulated 29 gene expression compared to control cells. 1×10e6 7721-EPOR cells were plated in 6 cm dishes and starved for 8 hours and then treated with either NS or EPO (10 IU/ml) for 16 hours. Total RNA was extracted from 2 independent experiments.