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Research Paper|Volume 12, Issue 13|pp 13206—13219

Altered circular RNA expression profiles in the non-ischemic thalamus in focal cortical infarction mice

Fangming Li1, Chuqiao Li2, Xiaoqiang Li3, Yudi Li4, Yulan Zhong4, Li Ling4
  • 1Department of Neurology, Shenzhen University General Hospital, Shenzhen University Clinical Medical Academy, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China
  • 2Department of Neurology, Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
  • 3Department of Neurology, Affiliated Xiaolan Hospital, Southern Medical University (Xiaolan People’s Hospital), Zhongshan, Guangdong, China
  • 4Department of Neurology, Shenzhen Hospital, Southern Medical University, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China
Received: August 11, 2019Accepted: May 19, 2020Published: July 8, 2020
https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.103424

Copyright © 2020 Li et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Abstract

Focal cerebral infarction leads to secondary changes in non-ischemic areas remote from but connected to the infarct site. Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are involved in the pathophysiological processes of many diseases. However, the expression and roles of circRNAs in non-ischemic remote regions after ischemic stroke remain unknown. In this study, adult male C57BL/6J mice were subjected to permanent distal middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) to establish focal cortical infarction. High-throughput sequencing was used to profile the circRNA expression in the mouse ipsilateral thalamus at 7 and 14 d after MCAO. Bioinformatics analyses were conducted to predict the function of the differential expressed circRNAs’ host and target genes. Compared with sham group, a total of 2659 circRNAs were significantly altered in the ipsilateral thalamus at 7 or 14 d after MCAO in mice. Among them, 73 circRNAs were significantly altered at both two time points after stroke. GO and KEGG analyses indicated that circRNAs plays important roles in secondary thalamic neurodegeneration and remodeling after focal cortical infarction. This is the first study to profile the circRNA expression in non-ischemic region of ischemic stroke, suggesting that circRNAs may be therapeutic targets for reducing post-stroke secondary remote neurodegeneration.