Aberrant lncRNA expression profiles in OSCC tissues compared with paired normal oral mucosa

Hypoxic microenvironment plays important roles in the progression of solid tumors including oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) have gained much attention in the past few years. However, it is not clear whether lncRNAs could regulate hypoxia-adaptation of OSCC, and which lncRNAs participate in this process. Using an lncRNA microarray, we analyzed the aberrant lncRNA expression profiles in OSCC tissues compared with paired normal oral mucosa as well as in hypoxic OSCC cells compared with normoxic OSCC cells. Our data revealed 2053 differentially expressed (Fold Change >= 2.0, P-value <= 0.05) lncRNAs, among which 934 lncRNAs were significantly up-regulated and 1119 lncRNAs were down-regulated in OSCC compared with paired normal mucosa. Six OSCC tissues and paired normal oral mucosa were obtained from 6 patients with OSCC. LncRNA expression profiles were evaluated by an Agilent Human LncRNA Array v3.0 (8 x 60K, Arraystar).