Potential genes and pathways along with immune cells infiltration in the progression of atherosclerosis identified via microarray gene expression dataset re-analysis.

OBJECTIVE

Atherosclerosis is a chronic inflammatory process characterized by the accumulation and formation of lipid-rich plaques within the layers of the arterial wall. Although numerous studies have reported the underlying pathogenesis, no data-based studies have been conducted to analyze the potential genes and immune cells infiltration in the different stages of atherosclerosis via bioinformatics analysis.

METHODS

In this study, we downloaded GSE100927 and GSE28829 from NCBI-GEO database. Gene ontology and pathway enrichment were performed via the DAVID database. The protein interaction network was constructed via STRING. Enriched hub genes were analyzed by the Cytoscape software. The evaluation of the infiltrating immune cells in the dataset samples was performed by the CIBERSORT algorithm.

RESULTS

We identified 114 common upregulated differentially expressed genes and 22 common downregulated differentially expressed genes. (adjust value < 0.01 and log FC ≥ 1). A cluster of 10 genes including and were found to be significant. Through the deconvolution algorithm CIBERSORT, we analyzed the significant alteration of immune cells infiltration in the progression of atherosclerosis with the threshold of the Wilcoxon test at value <0.05.

CONCLUSIONS

These results may reveal the underlying correlations between genes and immune cells in atherosclerosis, which enable us to investigate the novel insights for the development of treatments and drugs.