Department of Zoology, College of Life Science, Sichuan Agricultural University, Ya'an, Sichuan, China.
Chengdu Livestock and Poultry Genetic Resources Protection Center, Chengdu, Sichuan, China.
PeerJ. 2023 Aug 28;11:e15955. doi: 10.7717/peerj.15955. eCollection 2023.
Skin development is a complex process that is influenced by many factors. Pig skin is used as an ideal material for xenografts because it is more anatomically and physiologically similar to human skin. It has been shown that the skin development of different pig breeds is different, and some Chinese pig breeds have the characteristics of skin thickness and facial skin folds, but the specific regulatory mechanism of this skin development is not yet clear.
In this study, the facial skin of Chenghua sows in the four developmental stages of postnatal Day 3 (D3) , Day 90 (D90) , Day 180 (D180), and Year 3 (Y3) were used as experimental materials, and RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) analysis was used to explore the changes in RNA expression in skin development at the four developmental stages, determine the differentially expressed messenger RNAs (mRNAs), long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs), microRNAs (miRNAs), and circular RNAs (circRNAs), and perform functional analysis of related genes by Gene Ontology (GO) enrichment and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway analyses.
A pairwise comparison of the four developmental stages identified several differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and found that the number of differentially expressed RNAs (DE RNAs) increased with increasing developmental time intervals. Elastin (ELN) is an important component of the skin. Its content affects the relaxation of the epidermis and dermal connection, and its expression is continuously downregulated during the four developmental stages. The functions of DEGs at different developmental stages were examined by performing GO and KEGG analyses, and the GO terms and enrichment pathways of mRNAs, lncRNAs, miRNAs, and circRNAs highly overlapped, among which the PPAR signaling pathway, a classical pathway for skin development, was enriched by DEGs of D3 vs. D180, D90 vs. D180 and D180 vs. Y3. In addition, we constructed lncRNA-miRNA-mRNA and circRNA-miRNA interaction networks and found genes that may be associated with skin development, but their interactions need further study.
We identified a number of genes associated with skin development, performed functional analyses on some important DEGs and constructed interaction networks that facilitate further studies of skin development.
皮肤发育是一个复杂的过程，受多种因素影响。猪皮因其在解剖学和生理学上更接近人类皮肤而被用作异种移植物的理想材料。已经表明，不同猪品种的皮肤发育不同，一些中国猪品种具有皮肤厚度和面部皮肤褶皱的特点，但这种皮肤发育的具体调节机制尚不清楚。
本研究以成华母猪在出生后第 3 天（D3）、第 90 天（D90）、第 180 天（D180）和第 3 年（Y3）四个发育阶段的面部皮肤为实验材料，采用 RNA 测序（RNA-seq）分析方法，探讨四个发育阶段皮肤发育过程中 RNA 表达的变化，确定差异表达的信使 RNA（mRNA）、长链非编码 RNA（lncRNA）、微小 RNA（miRNA）和环状 RNA（circRNA），并通过基因本体论（GO）富集和京都基因与基因组百科全书（KEGG）途径分析对相关基因进行功能分析。
两两比较四个发育阶段，发现了一些差异表达基因（DEGs），并且随着发育时间间隔的增加，差异表达 RNA（DE RNA）的数量增加。弹性蛋白（ELN）是皮肤的重要组成部分，其含量影响表皮和真皮的松弛度，在四个发育阶段中其表达持续下调。通过对不同发育阶段的 DEGs 进行 GO 和 KEGG 分析，发现 mRNAs、lncRNAs、miRNAs 和 circRNAs 的 GO 术语和富集途径高度重叠，其中 D3 与 D180、D90 与 D180 和 D180 与 Y3 之间的 DEGs 富集了过氧化物酶体增殖物激活受体信号通路，这是一个经典的皮肤发育途径。此外，我们构建了 lncRNA-miRNA-mRNA 和 circRNA-miRNA 相互作用网络，发现了一些可能与皮肤发育相关的基因，但它们的相互作用需要进一步研究。
我们鉴定了一些与皮肤发育相关的基因，对一些重要的 DEGs 进行了功能分析，并构建了相互作用网络，有助于进一步研究皮肤发育。
