Description
To determine the genes potentially responsible for the lactate-mediated gene expression regulation in hepatocellular carcinoma, we performed RNA-seq analyses on parental HepG2, HepG2/metR and oxamate-treated HepG2/metR cells. To gain mechanistic insights into the lactate-induced pro-migratory phenotypes, we established a cell model that acquired a resistance to metformin while producing lactate at a high level by selecting HepG2 cells that survived a chronic exposure to metformin for more than 5 months (HepG2/metR). In HepG2/metR cells, glycolysis rates were increased by more than 3 folds compared with parental cells, and consequently, lactate production was also highly enhanced. To clarify the gene expression regulation between the lactate level in the HepG2/metR model, we treated the cells with oxamate, an inhibitor of lactate dehydrogenase, and found that it significantly. Using a 2-fold change cut-off value in transcriptome, we selected 1,757 genes significantly up-regulated in HepG2/metR vs parental HepG2 cells. 690 genes were down-regulated by oxamate treatment in HepG2/metR cells. Eventually, we selected 136 genes that are common in the two gene sets, which may directly respond to lactate signaling Overall design: mRNA profiles of HepG2 cells, HepG2/metR (hyper-glycolytic cell model), oxamate treated HepG2/metR (decreased lactate concentration cell) were generated by deep sequencing using Illumina Nextseq 500