Long non-coding RNA expression profile associated with malignant progression of oral submucous fibrosis

Oral submucous fibrosis (OSF) as one of the malignant disorders endures a series of histopathological stages to invasive oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) eventually. The role of long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) expression in OSF malignant progression is still poorly understood. Genome-wide lncRNA expression profiling of normal mucous, OSF and OSCC tissues was performed by RNA sequencing. Bioinformatic methods were applied for differential lncRNA analysis and functional enrichment analysis. Quantitative-RT-PCR was used to verify identified lncRNAs.21 novel transcripts were differentially expressed among all three stages during OSF progression with varied expression levels. Our study firstly comprehensively elucidated lncRNAs expression profile of the process of OSCC premalignant lesion to OSCC. 18 samples for RNA-seq