Microarray expression profiles of long non-coding RNAs in germinal center-like diffuse large B-cell lymphoma

Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are continuously transcribed and are involved in various cellular activities. However, their contributions to the occurrence and development of germinal center B-cell (GCB)-like diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) remain largely unknown. We applied microarray technology to profile the expression of lncRNAs in two different GCB-DLBCL cell lines (OCI-ly1 and OCI-ly19) and normal B lymphocytes. We demonstrated that 21,539 lncRNAs were expressed in all of the samples analyzed. This included 1,648 lncRNAs that showed a >= 2-fold upregulation and 2,671 lncRNAs that displayed a >= 2-fold downregulation in tumor cell lines (P<0.05). The expression levels of 8 lncRNAs were validated by quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). Bioinformatic analyses (Gene Ontology, pathway and network analysis) were performed to predict how the differentially expressed lncRNAs may function in GCB-DLBCL. Results from the pathway analysis suggested that totals of 64 and 62 biological pathways corresponded to upregulated and downregulated transcripts, respectively (P<0.05). Additionally, we constructed a lncRNA-mRNA network for the purpose of identifying specific coding genes which were co-expressed with 5 selected lncRNAs. Conclusively, our results may contribute to a better understanding of GCB-DLBCL pathogenesis.