Message RNA and microRNA Expression Profiles of Primary Chicken Hepatocytes Responding to Growth Hormone

Growth hormone (GH) is a key regulatory factor in bioprocesses in liver. To investigate the expression of genes and miRNAs regulated by GH in chicken hepatocytes, the mRNAs and miRNAs of primary chicken hepatocytes treated by cGH were profiled using next generation sequencing, and the functional relevance of related miRNA and mRNA was analyzed by GO enrichment analysis and target prediction methods. The results showed that 75.64% and 78.23% of total reads in the GH treated group and control group can be mapped to chicken genome, respectively. Of them, 82.59% in the treated group and 82.38% in the control group can be mapped to genes, 16736 genes were finally identified. Among these genes, 164 genes were identified differentially expressed, of which 112 were up-regulated and 52 were down-regulated after cGH treatment. About 80% of total reads represented miRNAs, 225 chicken miRNAs were finally identified. Among these miRNAs 17 were affected by cGH, of which 16 were up-regulated and 1 was down-regulated. We also identified 264 miRNAs homologous to other species and 95 predicted miRNAs. The differentially expressed genes (DEG) were mainly involved in growth and metabolism: 6 in growth, 26 in protein metabolism, 5 in carbohydrate metabolism and 15 in lipid metabolism. And integrating differentially expressed miRNAs (DEM) and DEG, we found DEM were mainly involved in lipid metabolism. These findings provide new information on profiles of mRNA and miRNAs in cGH treated chicken hepatocytes, and provide clues for understanding mechanisms underlying GH regulation of metabolism in chicken liver.