BACKGROUND: Hypoxia is an important feature of solid tumors and related to a perturbed blood supply in pathophysiologies. The aim of our research was to analyze the hypoxia response and elaborate its potential functions in colorectal cancer.

MATERIAL AND METHODS: The lncRNAs and mRNAs expression profile were analyzed in colorectal cancer cell line SW480 by RNA sequencing, and the functions and pathways of differentially expressed genes were screened by Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) and Gene Ontology (GO) analysis.

RESULTS: In this study, 77 lncRNAs and 1327 mRNAs were identified as differentially expressed. We discovered several novel lncRNAs, such as RP11-126K1.2, RP3-438O4.4, LINC01119, CTB-22K21.2, RP11-798M19.6, and RP11-2B6.3, which had not been previously reported in regulation by hypoxia. KEGG and GO analyses identified that the differentially expressed changes in mRNAs were mainly related to regulation of basic metabolic processes and gene transcription processes and were involved in several classical pathways which were linked to cancer.

CONCLUSIONS: Taken together, the present findings elucidate a set of differentially expressed lncRNAs and mRNAs involved in the hypoxia response process of colorectal cancer, which may serve as a candidate diagnostic biomarker and help to explain the mechanism of initial event in colorectal carcinogenesis in colorectal cancer.

Keywords: Cell Hypoxia, Colorectal Neoplasms, Sequence Analysis, RNA, Angiogenesis modulating agents, Gene Expression Profiling, Gene Expression Regulation, gene ontology, Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis, RNA, Messenger, Tumor Hypoxia