Profiling of mRNA and long non-coding RNA of urothelial cancer in recipients after renal transplantation.

The molecular mechanism and signal transduction pathways involved in urothelial cancer (UC) after renal transplantation (RTx) remain unknown. In this study, we investigated the profiling of messenger RNA (mRNA) and long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) in RTx recipients with UC. The mRNA and lncRNA of six pairs of UC and corresponding normal urothelial tissues in RTx recipients were profiled using Arraystar Human lncRNA Microarray V3.0, which is designed for the global profiling of 26,109 coding transcripts and 30,586 lncRNAs. Quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) was used to validate the differentially expressed mRNAs and lncRNAs. Molecular function classification and biological process classification for the differentially expressed mRNAs were analyzed with Gene Ontology. The key pathways that were associated with UC after RTx were analyzed using the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) database. Compared to normal urothelial tissues, 1597 mRNAs were upregulated and 1032 mRNAs were downregulated in UC; 2107 lncRNAs were upregulated and 1794 lncRNAs were downregulated (greater than twofold). Further qRT-PCR analysis of mRNA and lncRNA expression showed well consistency with the data of microarray analysis. The expression of matrix metalloprotease (MMP)-3, MMP-10, MMP-12, and MMP-13 was significantly increased, while the expression of CD36 was decreased in UC after RTx. Co-expression analysis of lncRNAs and their nearby coding genes showed that lncRNAs may play critical roles in regulating nearby genes in the carcinogenesis of UC. Our results also suggest that peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR) signaling may be involved in UC after RTx. Moreover, several cytokines and their receptors were also significantly upregulated in UC after RTx, suggesting that cytokines might be modulated and participated in the carcinogenesis of UC after RTx. We analyzed the potential molecular mechanism and pathways involved in the UC of RTx recipients. Our results revealed that several key regulatory pathways and lncRNAs play critical roles in the carcinogenesis of UC, and suggest that UC in RTx recipients may be more likely to invade and metastasis. However, the detailed functional analysis of these mechanisms should be further performed in the future.