Department of Ophthalmology, People's Liberation Army General Hospital, Beijing 100853, P.R. China.
Mol Med Rep. 2017 Dec;16(6):8399-8405. doi: 10.3892/mmr.2017.7606. Epub 2017 Sep 25.
Age related macular degeneration is one of the most common causes of vision loss in the elderly. Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) serve important roles in regulating gene expression by acting as competing endogenous RNAs (ceRNAs). However, the roles of specific lncRNAs and their associated ceRNA function induced by clusterin in cultured retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells remain to be fully elucidated. Based on high throughput sequencing data from RPE cells treated with or without clusterin, the present study identified differentially expressed mRNAs, lncRNAs and microRNAs (miRNAs). A lncRNA‑mRNA‑microRNA (miRNA) network (ceRNA network) was subsequently constructed based on the bioinformatic database miRanda and miRNA targets database miRTarBase. These results demonstrated the expression pattern of several lncRNAs, and a clear clusterin‑associated ceRNA network in RPE cells, which included 75 lncRNAs and 32 miRNAs in RPE cells induced by clusterin. Collectively, the present study uncovered and characterized via bioinformatics the global properties of the ceRNA network in human RPE cells in response to clusterin. These results may aid in the elucidation of the molecular mechanisms of clusterin in age‑related macular degeneration.
年龄相关性黄斑变性是老年人视力丧失的最常见原因之一。长链非编码 RNA（lncRNA）通过作为竞争性内源 RNA（ceRNA）发挥重要作用，调节基因表达。然而，特定 lncRNA 的作用及其在培养的视网膜色素上皮（RPE）细胞中由簇蛋白诱导的相关 ceRNA 功能仍有待充分阐明。基于用或不用簇蛋白处理的 RPE 细胞的高通量测序数据，本研究鉴定了差异表达的 mRNA、lncRNA 和 microRNA（miRNA）。随后，基于生物信息学数据库 miRanda 和 miRNA 靶数据库 miRTarBase 构建了 lncRNA-mRNA-miRNA（miRNA）网络（ceRNA 网络）。这些结果表明了几种 lncRNA 的表达模式，以及在 RPE 细胞中簇蛋白诱导的明确的簇蛋白相关 ceRNA 网络，该网络包括 75 个 lncRNA 和 32 个 miRNA。总之，本研究通过生物信息学揭示并描述了人 RPE 细胞对簇蛋白反应的 ceRNA 网络的整体特性。这些结果可能有助于阐明簇蛋白在年龄相关性黄斑变性中的分子机制。
