Abstract
Purpose :
Differentiation of lens epithelial cells (LECs) to lens fiber cells (LFCs) is a lifelong process involved in physiological lens development. Circular RNA, a class of covalently close-loop non-coding RNAs, plays important roles in lens development regulation. To unearth its potential specialized functions during human LECs differentiation, circRNA expression profiling in LECs and LFCs was analyzed.
Methods :
Clear human lenses of five organ donors were obtained from Guangdong Eyebank and dissected into LECs and LFCs for RNA extraction. Matching RNA samples from two cell types were assessed by Agilent microarray to identify differentially expressed circRNAs (DEcircRNAs). Gene ontology (GO) enrichment and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analyses of the DEcircRNAs were performed to determine the related biological modules and pathways.
Results :
There was a significant difference of circRNAs expression profiling between human LECs and LFCs, indicating that molecular regulation via circRNAs differs greatly in the process of LECs differentiation. A total of 218 DEcircRNAs were identified, among which 114 were up-regulated and 104 were down-regulated in LECs compared with LFCs. GO enrichment analyses revealed the DEcircRNAs were most signifcantly targeted to ephrin receptor signaling pathway (biological process), protein binding (molecular function) and cytosol (cellular compoment). Apoptosis, autophagy and Wnt signaling pathway were the most enriched pathway in KEGG analysis.
Conclusions :
Our findings uncover the circRNA profiling in human LECs and LFCs, and analyzed the most related biological modules and signaling pathways of DEcircRNAs, which paves the way for futher characterization of potential regulatory mechanism of circRNA in LECs differentiation.
This abstract was presented at the 2022 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Denver, CO, May 1-4, 2022, and virtually.