Circular RNAs expression profiles in human gastric cancer

Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are implicated in a variety of cancers. However, the roles of circRNAs in gastric cancer (GC) remain largely unknown. In the current study, circRNAs expression profiles were screened in GC, using 5 pairs of GC and matched non-GC tissues with circRNA chip. Preliminary results were verified with quantitative PCR (qRT-PCR). Briefly, total of 713 circRNAs were differentially expressed in GC tissues vs. non-GC tissues (fold change ≥ 2.0, p < 0.05): 191 were upregulated, whereas 522 were downregulated in GC tissues. qRT-PCR analysis of randomly selected 7 circRNAs from the 713 circRNAs in 50 paired of GC vs. non-GC control tissues confirmed the microarray data. Gene ontology (GO) and KEGG pathway analyses showed that many circRNAs are implicated in carcinogenesis. Among differentially expressed circRNAs, hsa_circ_0076304, hsa_circ_0035431, and hsa_circ_0076305 had the highest magnitude of change. These results provided a preliminary landscape of circRNAs expression profile in GC.