Affiliation:
1. Women’s Hospital of Nanjing Medical University (Nanjing Maternity and Child Health Care Hospital), Nanjing, China
2. Jiangsu Health Vocational College, Nanjing, China
3. School of Nursing, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China
4. High School Affiliated to Nanjing Normal University International Department, Nanjing, China
Abstract
Background
Vaginal lubrication is a crucial physiological response that occurs at the beginning of sexual arousal. However, research on lubrication disorders (LD) is still in its infancy, and the role of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) in LD remains unclear. This study aimed to explore the function of lncRNAs in the pathogenesis of vaginal LD.
Methods
The expression profiles of LD and normal control (NC) lncRNAs were examined using next-generation sequencing (NGS), and eight selected differentially expressed lncRNAs were verified by quantitative real-time PCR. We conducted GO annotation and KEGG pathway enrichment analyses to determine the principal functions of significantly deregulated genes. LncRNA-mRNA co-expression and protein-protein interaction (PPI) networks were constructed and the lncRNA transcription factors (TFs) were predicted.
Results
From the results, we identified 181,631 lncRNAs and 145,224 mRNAs in vaginal epithelial tissue. Subsequently, our preliminary judgment revealed a total of 499 up-regulated and 337 down-regulated lncRNAs in LD. The top three enriched GO items of the dysregulated lncRNAs included the following significant terms: “contractile fiber part,” “actin filament-based process,” and “contractile fiber”. The most enriched pathways were “cell-extracellular matrix interactions,” “muscle contraction,” “cell-cell communication,” and “cGMP-PKG signaling pathway”. Our results also showed that the lncRNA-mRNA co-expression network was a powerful platform for predicting lncRNA functions. We determined the three hub genes, ADCY5, CXCL12, and NMU, using PPI network construction and analysis. A total of 231 TFs were predicted with RHOXF1, SNAI2, ZNF354C and TBX15 were suspected to be involved in the mechanism of LD.
Conclusion
In this study, we constructed the lncRNA-mRNA co-expression network, predicted the lncRNA TFs, and comprehensively analyzed lncRNA expression profiles in LD, providing a basis for future studies on LD clinical biomarkers and therapeutic targets. Further research is also needed to fully determine lncRNA’s role in LD development.
Funder
The National Natural Science Foundation of China
Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu
Nanjing Medical Science and technique Development Foundation
Scientific Research Project of Jiangsu health vocational college
Nanjing Health Science and Technology Development Special Fund - Outstanding Youth Project
Jiangsu Natural Science Foundation
Subject
General Agricultural and Biological Sciences,General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology,General Medicine,General Neuroscience
Cited by
3 articles.
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