Long non-coding RNAs and mRNAs regulated by TGF-β. Homo sapiens

The role of TGF-β-induced epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) in cancer cell dissemination is well established, but the involvement of lncRNAs in TGF-β signaling is still unknown. In this study, we observed that the lncRNA-Activated by TGF-β (lncRNA-ATB) was upregulated in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) metastases and associated with poor prognosis. lncRNA-ATB promotes the invasion-metastasis cascade, which suggest that lncRNA-ATB, a mediator of TGF-β signaling, could predispose HCC patients to metastases and may serve as a potential target for anti-metastatic therapies. Overall design: SMMC-7721 hepatoma cells were continuously treated with 10 ng/ml of recombinant TGF-β1 for 21 days. Total RNA recovered from three untreated cells and three treated cells were used to acquire different expression profiles of mRNAs and lncRNAs.

转化生长因子-β（transforming growth factor-β, TGF-β）诱导的上皮间质转化（epithelial-mesenchymal transition, EMT）在肿瘤细胞播散中的作用已得到明确证实，但长链非编码RNA（long non-coding RNAs, lncRNAs）在TGF-β信号通路中的参与机制仍未明确。本研究中，我们观察到转化生长因子-β激活的长链非编码RNA（long non-coding RNA activated by TGF-β, lncRNA-ATB）在肝细胞癌（hepatocellular carcinoma, HCC）转移灶中表达上调，且与不良预后相关。lncRNA-ATB可促进侵袭-转移级联反应，这提示作为TGF-β信号通路介质的lncRNA-ATB可能使肝细胞癌患者易发生转移，有望成为抗转移治疗的潜在靶点。
实验整体设计：将SMMC-7721肝癌细胞以10 ng/ml的重组转化生长因子-β1持续处理21天。分别提取3组未处理细胞与3组处理细胞的总RNA，用于获取mRNA与lncRNAs的差异表达谱。