title: Differential expression profiles of sense and antisense transcripts             between HCV-associated hepatocellular carcinoma and corresponding non-cancerous             liver tissue.
abstract: Recent studies have demonstrated that natural antisense transcripts, which             are complementary sequences to messenger RNA, have important cellular functions             such as the stabilization and silencing of mRNA. However, the possible contribution             of antisense transcripts in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) development has not             been described. Therefore, we simultaneously investigated the sense and antisense             transcripts of HCC and non-cancerous tissues to explore the possible contribution             of antisense transcripts to HCC progression. RNA was prepared from 15 HCV-associated             HCCs and from 6 corresponding non-cancerous tissues and was subjected to expression             profile analysis of sense and antisense transcripts using a human custom microarray.             Differential expression of 161 sense and 25 antisense transcripts was observed             with more than 2-fold between HCC and non-cancerous tissue (p<0.001). The expression             of the sense and antisense transcripts was used to cluster cancer and non-cancerous             tissues, and the cancer and non-cancerous tissues were found to be clearly separated             into different clusters. Additionally, the sense and antisense expression profiles             were analyzed with regard to HCC differentiation (p<0.001), resulting in 71             sense and 43 antisense transcripts. These unique transcripts did not overlap with             those found in the discrimination of HCC from non-cancerous tissues. When the             HCC tissues were clustered by transcript expression, the antisense transcripts             resulted in clustering of HCC that was consistent with grouping based on histology.             These findings strongly indicate that the antisense transcripts together with             the sense transcripts are involved in liver tumorigenesis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Graduate School of Comprehensive Human                     Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8575, Japan.
authors.forename: Kentaro
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Nagai
authors.forename: Keisuke
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kohno
authors.forename: Mitsuru
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Chiba
authors.forename: Sugiru
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pak
authors.forename: Soichiro
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Murata
authors.forename: Kiyoshi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Fukunaga
authors.forename: Akihiko
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kobayashi
authors.forename: Hiroshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yasue
authors.forename: Nobuhiro
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Ohkohchi
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D006528:Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000821:virology; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D005260:Female; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D006526:Hepatitis C / Q000150:complications*; D006801:Humans; D008099:Liver / Q000378:metabolism*; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000821:virology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; D025341:Principal Component Analysis; D016372:RNA, Antisense / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D014158:Transcription, Genetic
chemical_list: D016372:RNA, Antisense