Department of Cardiology, General Hospital of Ningxia Medical University, Yinchuan 750000, China.
Exp Biol Med (Maywood). 2023 Sep;248(17):1459-1468. doi: 10.1177/15353702231187642. Epub 2023 Sep 9.
FUS plays a significant role as an RNA-binding protein in several cellular processes, including RNA splicing, DNA repair, and transcriptional regulation. However, the RNA-binding capacity of FUS in atherosclerosis is unclear. We aimed to study the functions of FUS in inflammatory regulation through the role of the splicing factor. We knocked down FUS with siRNA to further study the overall transcriptional level and select alternative splicing (AS) of FUS regulation in human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) by RNA sequencing. The results suggested that the knockdown of FUS significantly affected gene expression in HUVECs. In addition, the knockdown of FUS resulted in 200 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) that were highly related to apoptotic process, signal transduction, multicellular organism development, cell adhesion and regulation of transcription, and DNA-templated pathways. Importantly, FUS extensively regulated 2870 AS events with a significant difference. Functional analysis of its modulated AS genes revealed they were highly enriched in cell cycle and cell population proliferation pathways. The qRT-PCR and RNA-seq data showed consistent results. Our findings suggested new knowledge of the mechanisms of FUS associated with atherosclerosis.
FUS 作为一种 RNA 结合蛋白,在多种细胞过程中发挥重要作用,包括 RNA 剪接、DNA 修复和转录调控。然而,FUS 在动脉粥样硬化中的 RNA 结合能力尚不清楚。我们旨在通过剪接因子的作用研究 FUS 在炎症调节中的功能。我们用 siRNA 敲低 FUS,通过 RNA 测序进一步研究人脐静脉内皮细胞 (HUVEC) 中 FUS 调节的整体转录水平和选择剪接 (AS)。结果表明,FUS 的敲低显著影响了 HUVEC 中的基因表达。此外,FUS 的敲低导致 200 个差异表达基因 (DEGs),这些基因与凋亡过程、信号转导、多细胞生物发育、细胞黏附和转录调控以及 DNA 模板途径高度相关。重要的是,FUS 广泛调节了 2870 个具有显著差异的 AS 事件。其调节的 AS 基因的功能分析表明,它们在细胞周期和细胞群体增殖途径中高度富集。qRT-PCR 和 RNA-seq 数据显示结果一致。我们的研究结果为 FUS 与动脉粥样硬化相关的机制提供了新的认识。