Microarray analysis of lncRNAs and mRNAs in the process of human hyaline chondrocyte dedifferentiation in vitro

Autologous chondrocyte implantation (ACI) is an effective method to treat chronic articular cartilage injury in recent years, which requires a large number of human hyaline chondrocytes. Unfortunately, human hyaline chondrocytes often undergo dedifferentiation in vitro. Thus, it is important to elucidate the mechanism of dedifferentiation for the application of ACI technology. Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNA) play a regulatory role in gene expression in many pathological and physiological processes. However, the role of lncRNAs in human hyaline chondrocyte dedifferentiation remains unclear. The aim of this study was to investigate the expression profiles of lncRNAs in human hyaline chondrocyte dedifferentiation during in vitro culture. First, we cultured human hyaline chondrocytes in vitro and detected the expression of COL1A1, COL2A1, and SOX-9 in passage 1 (P1) and 5 (P5) chondrocytes using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR), immunofluorescence, and western blotting. Then, we analyzed the expression profiles of lncRNAs and mRNAs in P1 and P5 chondrocytes by microarray analysis. After passage culture, passage 1 (P1) chondrocytes were used as differentiated chondrocytes, while P5 chondrocytes were used as dedifferentiated chondrocytes. In microarray analysis, A stands for P1 chondrocytes, B stands for P5 chondrocytes, each group includes 3 samples (A1,A2,A3,B1,B2,B3), A1 and B1 obtained in the same individual.