RNA Expression Profile of normal fibroblasts (NFs) and cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) derived from human Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma.. RNA Expression Profile of normal fibroblasts (NFs) and cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) derived from human Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma.

Although how CAFs impact the tumor epithelium is being progressively unveiled, transcriptional processes of lineage plasticity in fibroblasts govern the acquisition and transition of the CAF phenotype are much less understood. Here, to explore the potential involvement of the circular RNAs (circRNAs) in fibroblast activation and phenotype acquisition, we isolated CAFs and NFs from human pancreatic cancer and paired normal pancreatic tissue. Next, we conducted circRNA profiling five CAFs and three paired NFs by high throughput sequencing. Our results showed that clusters of circRNAs were aberrantly expressed in CAFs compared with NFs, and provided potential targets for future treatment of PDAC and novel insights into PDAC microenvironment. Overall design: Analyze circular RNA expression in CAFs and NFs by Next-generation sequencing

尽管癌相关成纤维细胞（Cancer-Associated Fibroblasts, CAFs）调控肿瘤上皮细胞的机制正逐步被揭示，但调控成纤维细胞谱系可塑性以决定癌相关成纤维细胞表型获得与转化的转录过程，其相关机制仍远未得到充分阐明。本研究为探究环状RNA（circular RNAs, circRNAs）在成纤维细胞活化与表型获得过程中的潜在作用，从人胰腺癌组织及配对正常胰腺组织中分别分离得到癌相关成纤维细胞与正常成纤维细胞（Normal Fibroblasts, NFs）。随后，我们通过高通量测序对5份癌相关成纤维细胞样本及3份配对正常成纤维细胞样本进行环状RNA表达谱分析。研究结果显示，相较于正常成纤维细胞，癌相关成纤维细胞中存在多组环状RNA的异常表达，该发现可为胰腺导管腺癌（Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma, PDAC）的未来临床治疗提供潜在靶点，并为解析胰腺导管腺癌肿瘤微环境提供全新研究视角。实验整体设计：通过下一代测序技术分析癌相关成纤维细胞与正常成纤维细胞中的环状RNA表达水平。