Total RNA was phenol-chloroform extracted from cell lines Nthy-ori3-1 (NTHY–immortalized human thyroid follicular epithelial cell), TPC1 (papillary thyroid carcinoma- RET/PTC1 rearrangement) and BCPAP (papillary thyroid carcinoma–BRAFV600E) using TRIzol reagent (Invitrogen) according to the manufacter’s instructions. Four µg of total RNA was reverse transcribed using M-MLV Reverse Transcriptase (Invitrogen) in the presence of 100 ng of random hexamers primers according to the manufacter’s protocol. qPCR reaction was performed using 100 ng of cDNA, 1X Power SYBR Green PCR Master Mix (Applied Biosystems) and specific primers. Amplification and detection were performed using ViiA7 TM Real-Time PCR System (Applied Biosystems). Relative gene expression was calculated using the QGENE program and calculated with 2−ΔΔCt method using RPL19 (Ribosomal Protein L19) as endogenous control.