Differential expression of circRNA in placenta of patients with gestational hypertension and its potential mechanism
Objective To detect the difference of circular RNA(circRNA)expression in placentas between patients with ges-tational hypertension and healthy women based on high-throughput sequencing,and to explore the pathogenesis of gestational hyperten-sion.Methods Six pregnant women with gestational hypertension admitted to the First Medical Center of PLA General Hospital from February 2018 to December 2018 were selected as the research objects(group M),and six healthy pregnant women in the same period were selected as the control group(group C).Placental tissues from patients in group M and group C were sequenced after quality con-trol using BWA-MEM,circRNAs were identified using CIRI2,and the source of circRNAs was determined.CircRNA differential ex-pression analysis was performed using DEGseq.The target miRNA of circRNA was predicted by miRanda software and miRBase se-quence of this species,and the corresponding mRNA was predicted by Targetscan database.GO and KEGG enrichment analysis were performed on the differentially expressed circRNA target genes,and the genes were imported into String online database for cluster anal-ysis,and the genes at the core of the network were searched.Results There were 31 differential circRNAs in the two groups of sam-ples,14 down-regulated and 17 up-regulated,among which the first five up-regulated circRNAs were circRNA00809,circRNA00593,circRNA00166,circRNA00184 and circRNA00028 respectively,and the first five down-regulated circRNAs were circRNA00520,cir-cRNA00714,circRNA02491,circRNA00841 and circRNA01454 respectively.GO enrichment analysis showed that the main biological process of enrichment was reproduction process.The main enriched cell component was extracellular region.The main enriched molec-ular function was electron transfer activity.Metabolism was the most involved in the enrichment of KEGG pathway.Interaction network a-nalysis showed that NOTCH1/2 was at the core.Conclusions The differential expression of 31 circRNAs in placenta is associated with gestational hypertension,which may play a role by regulating meta-bolic pathways,and NOTCH1/2 and other genes are at the center of regulatory network.