Differential expression profile analysis of lncRNA UCA1α regulated mRNAs in bladder cancer

Urothelial carcinoma associated 1α (UCA1α) is a novel long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) that regulates bladder cancer proliferation, migration, and invasion. The target genes of UCA1α have, however, not been identified. To address this, a pCDNA3.1(+)-UCA1α over-expression vector was transfected into UM-UC-2 bladder cancer cells. Genes differentially expressed between pCDNA3.1(+)-UCA1α and pCDNA3.1(+) transfected cell were then detected by microarray and bioinformatics analysis. A total of 71 differentially expressed genes were identified, including 52 up-regulated genes and 19 down-regulated genes. As expected, the lncRNA UCA1α expression level was significantly increased when compared to that of pCDNA3.1(+) transfected cells. The five most significantly up-regulated and five most significantly down-regulated genes were selected, and their expression levels were also assessed by real time quantitative polymerase chain reaction and Western blot. The mRNA and protein expression levels of FOXI3 and GSTA3 were found to be significantly increased, and those of MED18 and TEX101 were found to be significantly decreased. Gene ontology (GO) clustering identified several significant biological processes, cellular components, and molecular functions, associated with lncRNA UCA1α over-expression. The differentially expressed genes were involved in several significant pathways as shown by Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway clustering. Cell proliferation activity was significantly increased following overexpression of lncRNA UCA1α increasing over culture time. The present study identifies, for the first time, potential target genes for lncRNA UCA1α in bladder cancer, and provides a significant reference for studying the role of lncRNA UCA1α in bladder cancer.