Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, National Clinical Research Center for Obstetric and Gynecologic Diseases, Beijing, China.
Front Endocrinol (Lausanne). 2023 Mar 15;14:1137235. doi: 10.3389/fendo.2023.1137235. eCollection 2023.
Endometriosis has a detrimental effect on oocyte quality, and ovarian endometriosis (OEM) and peritoneal endometriosis (PEM) may have different effects on female fertility. Therefore, we conducted a study to explore the circular RNA (circRNA) expression profiles of cumulus cells (CCs) in patients with OEM (n = 3), PEM (n = 3), and tubal factor infertility (TFI, n = 3) using high-throughput sequencing techniques and attempted to identify common and unique circRNAs in the OEM and PEM groups. The CIRCexplorer2 program was used to identify circRNAs. Seven candidate circRNAs were validated in 30 samples using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). Finally, Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analyses were performed to annotate the function of circRNA-targeted genes, which were verified by sequencing results and constructed circRNA-miRNA-mRNA networks. A total of 11833 circRNAs were identified in nine samples. The numbers of differentially expressed circRNAs between the OEM and TFI groups, PEM and TFI groups, and OEM and PEM groups were 130, 71, and 191, respectively. After taking intersections, 11 circRNAs were considered common circRNAs in the OEM and PEM groups; 39 circRNAs in the OEM group and 17 circRNAs in the PEM group were identified as unique key circRNAs. During qRT-PCR validation, hsa_circ_0003638 was significantly upregulated in the PEM group compared to that in the OEM and TFI groups. Functional analysis of circRNA-targeted genes revealed that apoptosis, PI3K-AKT, and p53 signaling pathways were enriched in the PEM-TFI comparison groups, whereas the functions of target genes involved in the JAK-STAT and TGF-β signaling pathways were enriched in the PEM-OEM comparison groups. Our findings confirmed differences in circRNA expression profiles of CCs between patients with OEM and PEM infertility and provide new insights into the different effects of various endometriosis phenotypes on oocytes.
子宫内膜异位症对卵母细胞质量有不良影响，卵巢子宫内膜异位症（OEM）和腹膜子宫内膜异位症（PEM）可能对女性生育力有不同的影响。因此，我们使用高通量测序技术对 OEM（n=3）、PEM（n=3）和输卵管因素不孕（TFI，n=3）患者的卵丘细胞（CC）中的环状 RNA（circRNA）表达谱进行了研究，并试图鉴定 OEM 和 PEM 组中共同和独特的 circRNA。使用 CIRCexplorer2 程序鉴定 circRNA。在 30 个样本中使用实时定量聚合酶链反应（qRT-PCR）验证了 7 个候选 circRNA。最后，进行基因本体论（GO）和京都基因与基因组百科全书（KEGG）分析以注释 circRNA 靶向基因的功能，这些基因的功能通过测序结果和构建 circRNA-miRNA-mRNA 网络进行验证。在九个样本中鉴定了 11833 个 circRNA。OEM 和 TFI 组、PEM 和 TFI 组以及 OEM 和 PEM 组之间差异表达的 circRNA 数量分别为 130、71 和 191。取交集后，11 个 circRNA 被认为是 OEM 和 PEM 组共有的 circRNA；OEM 组中有 39 个 circRNA，PEM 组中有 17 个 circRNA 被鉴定为独特的关键 circRNA。在 qRT-PCR 验证中，与 OEM 和 TFI 组相比，PEM 组中 hsa_circ_0003638 显著上调。circRNA 靶向基因的功能分析表明，PI3K-AKT 和 p53 信号通路在 PEM-TFI 比较组中富集，而参与 JAK-STAT 和 TGF-β信号通路的靶基因的功能在 PEM-OEM 比较组中富集。我们的研究结果证实了 OEM 和 PEM 不孕患者 CC 中 circRNA 表达谱的差异，并为不同子宫内膜异位症表型对卵母细胞的不同影响提供了新的见解。
