Transcriptome of papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) is well characterized and correlates with some prognostic and genotypic factors, but data addressing the interaction between PTC and tumor microenvironment (TME) are scarce. Therefore, in the present study, we aimed to assess the impact of TME on gene expression profile in PTC. We evaluated the gene expression profile in PTC and normal thyroid cells isolated by laser capture microdissection and in whole tissue slides corresponding to the entire tumor. We included 26 microdissected samples for gene expression analysis (HG-U133 PLUS 2.0, Affymetrix, currently Thermo Fisher Scientific USA): 15 PTC samples, 11 samples of normal thyrocytes, and 30 whole slides (15 PTC and 15 normal thyroid). Transcripts were divided into three groups: differentially expressed both in microdissected and whole slides, transcripts differently expressed in microdissected samples and not changed in whole slides, and transcripts differentially expressed in whole slides and not changed in microdissected samples. Eleven genes were selected for validation in an independent set of samples; among them, four genes differentiated only microdissected PTC and normal cells. Two genes (PTCSC and CTGF) were confirmed. One gene (FOS) was not confirmed by the validation, whereas EGR1 was also significant in whole slide analysis. The other seven genes (TFF3, FN1, MPPED2, MET, KCNJ2, TACSTD2, and GALE) showed differentiated expression in microdissected thyrocytes and in whole tumor slides. Most of identified genes were related to the tumor-microenvironment interaction and confirmed the crosstalk between TME and cancer cells.

中文翻译：

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肿瘤微环境对甲状腺乳头状癌基因表达谱的影响

甲状腺乳头状癌 (PTC) 的转录组具有很好的特征，并与一些预后和基因型因素相关，但关于 PTC 与肿瘤微环境 (TME) 之间相互作用的数据很少。因此，在本研究中，我们旨在评估 TME 对 PTC 中基因表达谱的影响。我们评估了通过激光捕获显微切割分离的 PTC 和正常甲状腺细胞以及与整个肿瘤相对应的全组织切片中的基因表达谱。我们纳入了 26 个用于基因表达分析的显微切割样品（HG-U133 PLUS 2.0，Affymetrix，目前为 Thermo Fisher Scientific USA）：15 个 PTC 样品、11 个正常甲状腺细胞样品和 30 个完整载玻片（15 个 PTC 和 15 个正常甲状腺）。转录本分为三组：在显微解剖和整个载玻片中差异表达，转录本在显微切割样品中的表达不同而在整个载玻片中没有改变，转录本在整个载玻片中差异表达并且在显微切割的样品中没有改变。在一组独立的样本中选择了 11 个基因进行验证；其中，四个基因只区分显微解剖的 PTC 和正常细胞。确认了两个基因（PTCSC 和 CTGF）。一个基因 (FOS) 未被验证证实，而 EGR1 在整个载玻片分析中也很重要。其他七种基因（TFF3、FN1、MPPED2、MET、KCNJ2、TACSTD2 和 GALE）在显微解剖的甲状腺细胞和整个肿瘤载玻片中显示出分化表达。大多数已鉴定的基因与肿瘤-微环境相互作用有关，并证实了 TME 与癌细胞之间的串扰。