Project description:To further define the role of piRNAs in the development of renal cancer, we employed piRNA microarray expression profiling as a discovery platform to identify differentially expressed piRNAs. Radical nephrectomy was performed on 3 patients with renal cancer, and the postoperative pathology was clear cell renal cell carcinoma. The cancer tissues and adjacent normal tissues of the patients were taken for piRNA sequencing. And the differentially high-expressed and differentially low-expressed piRNAs were analyzed by bioinformatics.
Project description:RATIONALE: Studying the genes expressed in samples of tissue from patients with cancer may help doctors identify biomarkers related to cancer.
PURPOSE: This laboratory study is using gene expression profiling to evaluate normal tissue and tumor tissue from patients with colon cancer that has spread to the liver, lungs, or peritoneum.
Project description:Piwi-interacting RNA (piRNA) are small RNA abundant in the germline across animal species. In fruit flies and mice, piRNA were implicated in maintenance of genomic integrity by transposable elements silencing. Outside of the germline, piRNA have only been found in Drosophila ovarian follicle cells. Previous studies further reported the presence of multiple piRNA-like small RNA (pilRNA) in fly heads and a small number of pilRNA in mouse tissues and human NK cells. Here, by analyzing high-throughput small RNA sequencing data in more than 130 fruit fly, mouse and rhesus macaque samples, we show widespread presence of pilRNA displaying all known characteristics of piRNA in multiple somatic tissues of these three species. In mouse pancreas and macaque epididymis, pilRNA abundance was compatible with piRNA abundance in the germline. Using in situ hybridizations, we further demonstrate pilRNA co-localization with mRNA expression of Piwi-family genes in all macaque tissues. These findings indicate that piRNA-like molecules might play important roles outside of the germline.
Project description:To explore the effect of DEHP on piRNA expression in rat testes, we have employed rat piRNA microarray expression profiling as a discovery platform to identify piRNAs with the potential to study the role of DEHP exposure on piRNA expression in rat testes to provide new insight into DEHP-induced male reproductive injury.