Transcriptomic profiling of long non-coding RNAs in hepatitis B virus-related hepatocellular carcinoma

Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been reported to be involved in the development and progression of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, few studies have focus on the dyregulation and the role of lncRNAs in HBV-related HCC. We performed a comprehensive analysis of lncRNAs expression profile in HBV-related HCC tissues samples using deep sequencing. We revealed that a total of 1242 lncRNA transcripts (983 up-regulated and 259 down-regulated) and 1841 mRNA transcripts were significantly differentially expressed in HBV-related HCC patients. Pathway and gene ontology analysis showed that they are involved in the biological process related to HCC development by cis-regulation of co-expressed protein-coding genes. 10 candidate lncRNAs were selected and validated with quantitative real-time PCR analysis. Furthermore, we found that one of most down-regulated lncRNAs, n346077, could suppress HCC cells invasion and migration in vitro. Our findings provide an overview of aberrantly expressed lncRNAs in HBV-related HCC and will be useful for further functional studies of lncRNAs in HBV-related pathogenesis.