Profiling circular RNA in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) with lymph node metastasis

Circular RNAs (circRNAs) have been identified as a novel class of non-conding RNAs, which are stable and have covalently single-stranded loop configuration.With the improvement of RNA-sequencing and bioimofrmatics, numerous dysregulated expression of circRNAs has been identified in kinds of physiological and pathological processes, especially in tumorigenesis. To date, however, the discovery of cirtical circRNA abnormalities, as well as their functions and underlying mechanisms, in the progress of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC), is still unknown. Microarray expression profiling of circRNAs were conducted using RNA extracted from three esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) tissues, three matched adjacent normal samples, and three matched metastatic lymph node.