[Differential mRNA expression in C57BL/6 mice with bleomycin-induced pulmonary fibrosis and its association with LncRNA co-expression network].

OBJECTIVE

To study the changes in mRNA and long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) expression profiles in a mouse model of bleomycin-induced lung fibrosis and identify lung fibrosis-related mRNA for coding-noncoding coexpression (CNC) bioinformatics analysis of the differential lncRNAs.

METHODS

Lung fibrosis was induced by intratracheal injection of bleomycin in 10 C57BL/6 mice and another 10 mice with intratracheal injection of saline served as the control group. Lung tissues were harvested from the mice at 14 days after the injections and lung fibrosis was assessed using Masson and HE staining. LncRNA chip technology was used to screen the differentially expressed mRNAs and lncRNAs in mice with lung fibrosis, and GO and KEGG pathway analyses of the differential mRNAs were performed using NCBI database and UCSC database to identify possible fibrosis-related mRNAs, which were validated by qRT-PCR to construct a coding and non-coding co- expression network with the differential lncRNAs.

RESULTS

Compared with the control mice, the mice with intratracheal injection of bleomycin showed obvious lung fibrosis. The results of gene chip analysis showed that 127 mRNAs were upregulated and 184 mRNAs were down-regulated in the model group as compared with the control group. GO and pathway analysis suggested that the differentially expressed genes participated mainly in immune response, cell differentiation, and cytoskeletons; the involved signal pathways were associated mainly with cytokine and cytokine receptor interaction and chemokine signal transduction. Bioinformatics analysis identified a significant coexpression network between the fibrosisrelated mRNA and the differentially expressed lncRNA.

CONCLUSIONS

In mice with lung fibrosis, the differential expressions of fibrosis-related mRNAs in the lung tissues are closely correlated with the co- expressions of a large number of differential lncRNAs, which points to a new direction for investigation of the pathogenesis of pulmonary fibrosis.