microRNA profiling of normal testes and testicular germ cell tumors using deep sequencing approach

Several observations have pointed a link between small RNA pathway and testicular germ cell tumorigenesis. Yet, the role of small RNAs in testicular germ cell tumors (TGCTs) is still not completely understood. In this study, we characterized the expression profiles of sRNAs in 9 primary sporadic TGCTs and 2 normal testes (NTs) using a sequencing approach. Our data show comprehensive coverage of microRNAs (miRNAs) expressed in human TGCT tissues and NTs, including the identification of 29 candidate novel miRNAs. We identified the differentially expression of miR-506~514 cluster and miR-21, miR-223 in the TGCTs compared to NTs. Functionally, we showed that miR-514a-3p positively regulates apoptosis through directly regulating PEG3. We further demonstrate that PEG3 activates NF-kappa B pathway in human testicular germ cell tumors. 11 snap frozen tissues, including 2 Normal Testes (NTs) and 9 Testicular germ tumors (TGCTs), were subjected to small RNA sequencing using Solexa/Illumina sequencing platform (Illumina 1G Genome Analyzer)