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Expression of small nucleolar RNAs in leukemic cells

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Abstract

Purpose

Small nucleolar RNAs (snoRNAs) direct sequence-specific modifications to ribosomal RNA. We hypothesized that the expression of snoRNAs may be altered in leukemic cells.

Methods

The expression of snoRNAs was analyzed in various leukemic cell lines by massive parallel sequencing (SOLiD). Quantitative real-time PCR (RT-qPCR) was used to validate the expression profiles.

Results

Our results show characteristic differences in the expression patterns of snoRNAs between cell lines representing the main subgroups of leukemia, AML, pre-B-ALL and T-ALL, respectively. In RT-qPCR analyses, several snoRNAs were found to be differentially expressed in T-ALL as compared to pre-B-ALL cell lines.

Conclusions

snoRNAs are differentially expressed in various leukemic cell lines and could, therefore, be potentially useful in the classification of leukemia subgroups.

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Abbreviations

ALL:

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia

AML:

Acute myeloid leukemia

APL:

Acute promyeloid leukemia

BLL:

Burkitt’s lymphoma/leukemia

DE:

Differentially expressed

FC:

Fold change

miRNA:

Micro-RNA

ncRNA:

Non-protein-coding RNA

NSCLC:

Non-small cell lung cancer

RT-qPCR:

Quantitative real-time PCR

scaRNA:

Cajal body-specific RNA

siRNA:

Small interfering RNA

snRNA:

Small nuclear RNA

snoRNA:

Small nucleolar RNA

snoRNP:

Small nucleolar ribonucleoprotein

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Acknowledgements

We thank Mr. Jorma Kulmala for technical assistance. This work was supported by the Academy of Finland Research Council for Health (funding decision number 115260), the Foundation for Paediatric Research in Finland, the Finnish Medical Foundation, the Competitive Research Funding of Tampere University Hospital (grants 9J062, 9K073 and 9M052), the Nona and Kullervo Väre Foundation and the Päivikki and Sakari Sohlberg Foundation. The funding sources had no involvement in the study.

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The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Tampere Center for Child Health Research, University of Tampere School of Medicine and Tampere University Hospital, FM-3, Biokatu 10, 3rd Floor, FIN-33520, Tampere, Finland

    Kaisa J. Teittinen, Annemari Uusimäki & Olli Lohi

  2. Turku Centre for Biotechnology and the Finnish Microarray and Sequencing Centre, University of Turku and Åbo Akademi University, 20520, Turku, Finland

    Asta Laiho, Juha-Pekka Pursiheimo & Attila Gyenesei

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  1. Kaisa J. Teittinen
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Correspondence to Kaisa J. Teittinen.

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Authors’ contributions

Kaisa J. Teittinen and Olli Lohi provided conception of the study, designed the study and drafted the manuscript. Kaisa J. Teittinen, Asta Laiho, Annemari Uusimäki and Juha-Pekka Pursiheimo performed the experiments. Kaisa J. Teittinen, Asta Laiho, Attila Gyenesei and Olli Lohi analyzed and interpreted the data. Asta Laiho, Annemari Uusimäki, Juha-Pekka Pursiheimo and Attila Gyenesei revised the manuscript and all authors approved the final version of the submitted manuscript.

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Teittinen, K.J., Laiho, A., Uusimäki, A. et al. Expression of small nucleolar RNAs in leukemic cells. Cell Oncol. 36, 55–63 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13402-012-0113-5

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