Diabetes, Metabolic Syndrome and Obesity (Dec 2023)

Microarray Expression Profile of Exosomal circRNAs from High Glucose Stimulated Human Renal Tubular Epithelial Cells

  • Sha YH,
  • Cao SL,
  • Zhang L,
  • Lai LS,
  • Ke PF,
  • Yu KW,
  • Fang XZ,
  • Deng RT,
  • Wan ZM,
  • Wu XB,
  • Han G,
  • Jie YB,
  • Song LL,
  • Huang XZ,
  • Fu WJ

Journal volume & issue
Vol. Volume 16
pp. 3937 – 3951

Abstract

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Yan-Hua Sha,1 Song-Ling Cao,1 Lu Zhang,2 Li-Sha Lai,2 Pei-Feng Ke,1 Ke-Wei Yu,1 Xiu-Zhu Fang,2 Ren-Tang Deng,2 Ze-Min Wan,1 Xiao-Bin Wu,1 Guang Han,1 Yu-Bang Jie,2 Lan-Lan Song,2 Xian-Zhang Huang,1 Wen-Jin Fu2 1Department of Laboratory Medicine, The Second Clinical College of Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou, Guangdong, People’s Republic of China; 2Clinical Laboratory, Houjie Hospital of Guangdong Medical University, Dongguan, Guangdong, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Xian-Zhang Huang, Department of Laboratory Medicine, The Second Clinical College of Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou, Guangdong, People’s Republic of China, Email [email protected]; Wen-Jin Fu, Clinical Laboratory, Houjie Hospital of Guangdong Medical University, Dongguan, Guangdong, People’s Republic of China, Email [email protected]: Circular RNA (circRNAs) are a type of non-coding RNA (ncRNAs) with a wealth of functions. Recently, circRNAs have been identified as important regulators of diabetic kidney disease (DKD), owing to their stability and enrichment in exosomes. However, the role of circRNAs in exosomes of tubular epithelial cells in DKD development has not been fully elucidated.Methods: In our study, microarray technology was used to analyze circRNA expression in cell supernatant exosomes isolated from HK-2 cells with or without high glucose (HG) treatment. The small interfering RNAs (siRNA) and plasmid overexpression were used to validate functions of differentially expressed circRNAs.Results: We found that exosome concentration was higher in HG-stimulated HK-2 cells than in controls. A total of 235 circRNAs were significantly increased and 458 circRNAs were significantly decreased in the exosomes of the HG group. In parallel with the microarray data, the qPCR results showed that the expression of circ_0009885, circ_0043753, and circ_0011760 increased, and the expression of circ_0032872, circ_0004716, and circ_0009445 decreased in the HG group. Rescue experiments showed that the effects of high glucose on regulation of CCL2, IL6, fibronetin, n cadherin, e cadherin and epcam expression can be reversed by inhibiting or overexpressing these circRNAs. Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) biological pathway analyses indicated that circRNA parental genes are associated with glucose metabolism, lipid metabolism, and inflammatory processes, which are important in DKD development. Further analysis of circRNA/miRNA interactions indicated that 152 differentially expressed circRNAs with fold change (FC) ≥ 1.5 could be paired with 43 differentially expressed miRNAs, which are associated with diabetes or DKD.Discussion: Our results indicate that exosomal circRNAs may be promising diagnostic and therapeutic biomarkers, and may play a critical role in the progression of DKD.Keywords: exosome, cicrRNA, diabetic nephropathy, high glucose, microarray

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