Identification of liver metastasis-associated genes in human colon carcinoma by mRNA profiling

Objective: Liver metastasis,which contributes substantially to high mortality,is the most common recurrent mode of colon carcinoma.Thus,it is necessary to identify genes implicated in metastatic colonization of the liver in colon carcinoma.Methods: We compared mRNA profiling in 18 normal colon mucosa(N),20 primary tumors(T) and 19 liver metastases(M) samples from the dataset GSE49355 and GSE62321 of Gene Expression Omnibus(GEO) database.Gene ontology(GO) and pathways of the identified genes were analyzed.Co-expression network and proteinprotein interaction(PPI) network were employed to identify the interaction relationship.Survival analyses based on The Cancer Genome Atlas(TCGA) database were used to further screening.Then,the candidate genes were validated by our data.Results: We identified 22 specific genes related to liver metastasis and they were strongly associated with cell migration,adhesion,proliferation and immune response.Simultaneously,the results showed that C-X-C motif chemokine ligand 14(CXCL14) might be a favorable prediction factor for survival of patients with colon carcinoma.Importantly,our validated data further suggested that lower CXCL14 represented poorer outcome and contributed to metastasis.Gene set enrichment analysis(GSEA) showed that CXCL14 was negatively related to the regulation of stem cell proliferation and epithelial to mesenchymal transition(EMT).Conclusions: CXCL14 was identified as a crucial anti-metastasis regulator of colon carcinoma for the first time,and might provide novel therapeutic strategies for colon carcinoma patients to improve prognosis and prevent metastasis.

The Impact of Different Stain Carriers on the mRNA Profiling from Bloodstains

Unlike DNA profiling,mRNA profiling is greatly affected by external factors.To analyze the influence of different stain carriers on the detectability of mRNA markers from bloodstains,this study examined 10 carriers,including a knife,cotton swab,paper,plastic,leather,cement,chopsticks,clothes,ceramic block,and wall.After detecting five specific mRNA markers(HBA,HBB,ALAS2,GYPA,and SPTB)and the housekeeping gene B2M in peripheral blood samples,no statistically significant differences in the effects of the carriers were found.The results suggest that when performing mRNA testing on bloodstains,the effect of the stain carrier has little influence.

PGC-1α differentially regulates the mRNA expression profiles of genes related to myofiber type specificity in chicken

Previous studies on mammals showed that peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma coactivator-1α(PGC-1α)played a prominent role in regulating muscle fiber type transition and composition.However,the role of PGC-1αin chicken muscle has seldom been explored.To investigate the effect of PGC-1αon chicken skeletal muscles in this study,the PGC-1αgene was overexpressed or silenced in chicken primary myoblasts by using lentivirus,and then the effects of the PGC-1αgene overexpression and knockdown on the mRNA expression profile of genes related to myofiber type specificity were examined during fiber formation.The results showed that overexpression of PGC-1αfrom proliferation to differentiation was accompanied by the up-regulated expression of Pax7,MyoD,and CnAα,which was significantly(P<0.01)increased after one day of transfection(1 I).The enhancement of MyoG,MEF2 c,and MyHC SM expression lagged,which was improved significantly(P<0.01)after four days of transfection(1 I3 D).Overexpression of PGC-1αdecreased(P<0.01)the MyHC FWM expression after four days of transfection(1 I3 D),and it had no significant impact(P>0.05)on the expression of CnB1,NFATc3,and MyHC FRM during myofiber formation.The effective silence(P<0.01)of PGC-1αby lentivirus mediating short hairpin RNA(shRNA)was detected after four days of transfection(1 I3 D)in cultures,and the lack of its function in chicken primary myoblasts significantly(P<0.01)down-regulated the expression of Pax7,MyoD,CnAα,MyoG,MEF2 c,and MyHC SM,significantly(P<0.01)up-regulated the expression of MyHC FWM,and had no significant impact(P>0.05)on the expression of CnB1,NFATc3,and MyHC FRM.These results indicated that the role of PGC-1αin regulating the fiber type specificity of chicken skeletal muscles might be similar to that in mammals,which interplayed with key genes related to myocyte differentiation and calcineurin signaling pathway.