In this study we have used siRNA and shRNA to knock down hTERT
and assess its associationwith global gene expression pattern by microarray
analysis. We found that 388 genes were differentially expressed
(p = 0.05 and fold change N2) upon hTERT knockdown by both
methods. Out of these, 73 genes (19%) were commonly downregulated and 80 genes (21%)were commonly upregulated. The uncommon gene
expression between these twomethods may be attributed to the differences
in transfection efficiency and stability of naïve siRNA compared
with shRNA bearing miRNA loops.