Comparison of expression profiling of circular RNAs in vitreous humour between diabetic retinopathy and non-diabetes mellitus patients

Acta Diabetologica volume 57, pages479–489(2020)Cite this article

Abstract

Aims

To compare circular (circRNA) expression levels in the vitreous humour between PDR (proliferative diabetic retinopathy) and the control groups.

Methods

The present study collected vitreous humour samples of both the PDR group and the control group (composed of rhegmatogenous retinal detachment, idiopathic macular hole and idiopathic macular epiretinal membrane). All the samples were subjected to circRNA and mRNA sequencing as well as bioinformatic analysis.

Results

The vitreous humour of the PDR and control groups was collected during PPV surgery. Compared to the control group, 122 upregulated and 9 downregulated circRNAs, and 818 upregulated mRNAs and 864 downregulated mRNAs were identified. We further selected 12 circRNAs to validate the RNA expression level by qPCR; results showed that with the exception of 2 downregulated circRNAs the remaining were significantly upregulated in the PDR group, which was consistent with RNA sequencing results. Bioinformatic analysis was conducted to predict possible miRNAs absorbed by circRNAs. Each circRNA could interact with at least five miRNAs. We randomly chose three miRNAs to test the expression level in the vitreous humour by qPCR and found these miRNAs were significantly downregulated in the PDR group.

Conclusions

The changed profiling of circRNAs in the vitreous humour was reliable and may become a promising biomarker of DR and the circRNA–miRNA–mRNA network. It may also play an important role in the progression of DR.

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Funding

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (ID 81900866) and Medical Scientific Research Foundation of Guangdong Province (Grant Number B2018096).

Author information

Affiliations

  1. Department of Ophthalmology, Guangdong Academy of Medical Sciences, Guangdong Provincial People’s Hospital, No. 106, Zhongshan Er Road, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China

    Miao He, Honghua Yu, Dan Cao, Yunkao Zeng, Qiaowei Wu, Pingting Zhong, Zhixing Cheng, Yunyan Hu & Liang Zhang

  2. Shantou University Medical College, Shantou, China

    Yunkao Zeng & Pingting Zhong

  3. Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, China

    Qiaowei Wu

  4. Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center, State Key Laboratory of Ophthalmology, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China

    Wei Wang & Decai Wang

Authors
  1. Miao He
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  2. Wei Wang
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  3. Honghua Yu
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  4. Decai Wang
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  5. Dan Cao
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  6. Yunkao Zeng
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  7. Qiaowei Wu
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  8. Pingting Zhong
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  9. Zhixing Cheng
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  10. Yunyan Hu
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  11. Liang Zhang
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by Miao He, Wei Wang and Liang Zhang. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Miao He, and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Liang Zhang.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical Standard Statement

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. The current study was approved by the Ethical Review Committee of Guangdong Provincial People’s Hospital (Number 2016232A).

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Informed consent was obtained from all patients for being included in the study.

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This article belongs to the topical collection Eye Complications of Diabetes managed by Giuseppe Querques.

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He, M., Wang, W., Yu, H. et al. Comparison of expression profiling of circular RNAs in vitreous humour between diabetic retinopathy and non-diabetes mellitus patients. Acta Diabetol 57, 479–489 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00592-019-01448-w

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Keywords

  • Diabetic retinopathy
  • circRNA
  • miRNA
  • mRNA
  • Vitreous humour