Zhang Meng-Jie, Yin Jiang-Wen, Wu Jin-Huan, Gu Jie, Yuan Cai-Yun, Miao Hong-Jun, Yu Zhang-Bin
Department of Emergency, Children's Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, 210008, China.
Department of Pediatrics, Nantong Maternal and Child Health Care Hospital, Nantong, Jiangsu, 226000, China.
Heliyon. 2020 Mar 5;6(3):e03437. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e03437. eCollection 2020 Mar.
Circular RNAs (circRNAs), a novel type of endogenous RNAs, can function as microRNA (miRNA) sponges capable of regulating gene transcription, binding to RNA-associated proteins, and even encoding proteins. CircRNAs are involved in various cell behaviors, such as proliferation and apoptosis. The mouse model has also been demonstrated to be similar to that of humans in many studies. To explore the profile of circRNAs during embryonic lung development and their potential functions in lung development-related diseases, mouse embryos at the pseudoglandular phase, canalicular phase, saccular phase, and alveolar phase were collected. High-throughput sequencing was then used to identify a total of 1,735 circRNAs (junction reads ≥5 and p < 0.05). It is well known that the functions of circRNAs are related to host genes. In our study, bioinformatics analysis indicated that the screened host genes were closely associated with lung development and included the Hippo signaling pathway, PI3K-Akt signaling pathways, and TGF-β signaling pathways. Moreover, miRNA sponges are another mechanism involved in lung development. Therefore, we predicted many miRNAs binding to circRNAs, such as miR-17 and miR-20, using the TargetScan and miRanda databases. Previously, miRNAs were proven to be necessary for lung development. The peak expression of circRNAs is distributed at different time points, suggesting their involvement in different stages of embryonic mouse lung development.
环状RNA（circRNAs）是一类新型的内源性RNA，可作为微小RNA（miRNA）海绵发挥作用，能够调控基因转录、与RNA相关蛋白结合，甚至编码蛋白质。CircRNAs参与多种细胞行为，如增殖和凋亡。在许多研究中，小鼠模型也被证明与人类模型相似。为了探究胚胎肺发育过程中circRNAs的概况及其在肺发育相关疾病中的潜在功能，收集了假腺期、小管期、囊泡期和肺泡期的小鼠胚胎。随后采用高通量测序共鉴定出1735个circRNAs（连接读数≥5且p<0.05）。众所周知，circRNAs的功能与宿主基因有关。在我们的研究中，生物信息学分析表明，筛选出的宿主基因与肺发育密切相关，包括Hippo信号通路、PI3K-Akt信号通路和TGF-β信号通路。此外，miRNA海绵是参与肺发育的另一种机制。因此，我们使用TargetScan和miRanda数据库预测了许多与circRNAs结合的miRNA，如miR-17和miR-20。此前，miRNA已被证明对肺发育至关重要。circRNAs的峰值表达分布在不同时间点，表明它们参与了小鼠胚胎肺发育的不同阶段。
