hsa_circRNA_100873 upregulation is associated with increased lymphatic metastasis of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma

Bin Zheng; Zhigang Wu; Songtao Xue; Hao Chen; Shuliang Zhang; Taidui Zeng; Guobing Xu; Weidong Wu; Wei Zheng; Chun Chen

doi:10.3892/ol.2019.11003

hsa_circRNA_100873 upregulation is associated with increased lymphatic metastasis of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma

Oncol Lett. 2019 Dec;18(6):6836-6844. doi: 10.3892/ol.2019.11003. Epub 2019 Oct 18.

Authors

Bin Zheng¹, Zhigang Wu¹, Songtao Xue¹, Hao Chen¹, Shuliang Zhang¹, Taidui Zeng¹, Guobing Xu¹, Weidong Wu¹, Wei Zheng¹, Chun Chen¹

Affiliation

¹ Thoracic Department, Fujian Medical University Union Hospital, Fuzhou, Fujian 350001, P.R. China.

Abstract

Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are a type of endogenous non-coding RNA with multiple binding sites that specifically bind to microRNAs (miRNAs) and serve an important role in cellular regulatory networks. Patients exhibit varying levels of lymphatic metastasis in a clinical setting. The present study investigated the association between circRNAs and lymphatic metastasis in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). The tissue samples were divided into three groups, including early tumor stage associated with advanced nodal stage (T1 group), advanced tumor stage associated with early nodal stage (T2 group) and healthy esophageal epithelial tissues as the control group (C group). Gene chip analysis identified circRNAs, and those with possible regulatory functions were validated by reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction analysis (RT-qPCR). circRNAs containing miRNA response element (MRE) sequences were obtained, and circRNA/miRNA prediction software was used to predict miRNAs that may interact with circRNA. A total of 12,275 circRNAs were detected, including 861 with statistically significant differences. A comparison between the T1 and C groups identified 152 upregulated circRNAs and 431 downregulated ones, while a comparison between the T2 and C groups identified 187 upregulated and 481 downregulated circRNAs. A T1/T2 group comparison revealed that four circRNAs were upregulated and seven were downregulated (fold change >1.5; P<0.05). The RT-qPCR data and gene chip analysis consistently identified hsa_circRNA_100873 as differentially expressed among the examined groups. A total of five potential MREs and complementary sequences were selected for hsa_circRNA_100873. The results of the present study indicated that multiple differentially expressed circRNAs are involved in the pathogenesis of ESCC, and that upregulation of hsa_circRNA_100873 may be associated with increased lymphatic metastases in ESCC.

Keywords: circular RNA; esophageal squamous cell carcinoma; expression; hsa_circRNA_100873; lymphatic metastasis.