Profiling and Bioinformatics Analysis of Differentially Expressed circRNAs in Osteogenically Differentiated MSCs of Patients with Ankylosing Spondylitis

Recent studies have reported that circular RNAs (circRNAs) play a crucial regulatory role in a variety of human diseases. However, the roles of circRNAs in MSC osteogenesis in ankylosing spondylitis (AS) remain unclear. these results revealed the expression profiles of miRNAs and the potential functions of the DE miRNAs in the MSC of patients with AS, which may provide new clues for understanding the mechanisms of ossify associated with AS, and proceed to identify novel potential molecular targets for the diagnoses and treatment of AS. We conducted circRNA and miRNA expression profiling of osteogenically differentiated MSC of patients with AS compared with healthy donors (HD) by RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) and analyzed the potential functions of differentially expressed (DE) circRNA by Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analyses. The circRNA-miRNA interaction networks were also established.近期研究表明，环状RNA（circular RNAs, circRNAs）在多种人类疾病中发挥关键调控作用。然而，环状RNA在强直性脊柱炎（ankylosing spondylitis, AS）患者间充质干细胞（Mesenchymal Stem Cells, MSC）成骨过程中的作用仍不明确。本研究结果揭示了强直性脊柱炎患者间充质干细胞中微小RNA（microRNAs, miRNAs）的表达谱，以及差异表达（differentially expressed, DE）微小RNA的潜在功能，可为解析强直性脊柱炎相关骨化的发病机制提供新线索，并有望筛选出用于该病诊断与治疗的新型潜在分子靶点。我们通过RNA测序（RNA sequencing, RNA-seq），对比了强直性脊柱炎患者与健康供体（healthy donors, HD）的成骨分化间充质干细胞的环状RNA与微小RNA表达谱，并采用基因本体（Gene Ontology, GO）与京都基因与基因组百科全书（Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes, KEGG）分析，对差异表达环状RNA的潜在功能进行了富集分析，同时构建了环状RNA-微小RNA相互作用网络。