miRNA expression profile of non-epithelial ovarian tumors

Ovarian cancer is common among women. Cancer in ovaries can arise from three different tissues, epithelial, germ and stromal cells. Majority of ovarian cancer arise from epithelial tissues. However, cancer in the germ cells or stromal cells are histologically, genetically and clinically heterogeneous, which result in a challenge in terms of treatment. In this study, we generated sRNA libraries of germ cell tumors (7 benign and 2 malignant) as well as 3 stromal tumors. In particular, we analyzed the miRNA profile of these tumors and found that malignant ovarian germ cell tumors (OGCT) are genetically distinct from benign OGCT and sex cord-stromal tumors (SCST). We detected several miRNAs that were deregulated in malignant OGCT compared to benign and SCST and fewer deregulated miRNAs between benign OGCT and SCST. However, we were still able to detect several deregulated miRNAs between benign OGCT and SCST. Overall design: 12 snap frozen tissues, including 3 sex cord-stromal tumors (SCSTs), 7 benign and 2 malignant ovarian germ cell tumors (OGCTs), were subjected to small RNA sequencing using Solexa/Illumina sequencing platform (Illumina 1G Genome Analyzer)