Comprehensive analysis of long non-coding RNA PVT1 gene interaction regulatory network in hepatocellular carcinoma using gene microarray and bioinformatics.

PVT1 has been reported to be involved in the tumorigenesis and development of different cancers. However, the role of PVT1 in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains unclear. In this study, we applied gene microarray analysis to detect differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between PVT1 RNAi groups and controls. We initially investigated and confirmed PVT1 expression in HCC using The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). The potential genes and pathways associated with PVT1 were also analyzed. We also performed bioinformatics analyses (Gene Ontology (GO), pathway, Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG), and network analyses) to explore the underlying pathways and networks of these potential genes. We selected DLC1 for further analysis. Based on the TCGA database, PVT1 was markedly up-regulated in HCC, whereas DLC1 was down-regulated. Moreover, PVT1 expression negatively correlated with DLC1 in HCC, an observation that has been further validated in different cohorts with Oncomine. High expression of PVT1 was positively associated with gender, race, vascular invasion and pathological grade in HCC. Additionally, the ROC curve indicated that both PVT1 and DLC1 have high diagnostic value in HCC. We speculated that PVT1 might play a significant role in HCC development and progression via regulation of various pathways and genes, especially DLC1 and the Hippo signaling pathway. However, this mechanism should be confirmed by functional experiments.