Circular RNA expression profiles in umbilical cord blood exosomes from normal and gestational diabetes mellitus patients.

Minkai Cao,Zhengying Li,Jianjuan Xu,Juan Wen,Yu Lin,Zhonghua Shi,Le Zhang,Jinqi Ma,Zhong Chen

doi:10.1042/bsr20201946

Abstract

Circular RNA (circRNA) is a novel member of endogenous noncoding RNAs with widespread distribution and diverse cellular functions. Recently, circRNAs have been identified for their enrichment and stability in exosomes. However, the roles of circRNAs from umbilical cord blood exosomes in gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) occurrence and fetus growth remains poorly understood. In the present study, we used microarray technology to construct a comparative circRNA profiling of umbilical cord blood exosomes between GDM patients and controls. We found the exosome particle size was larger, and the exosome concentration was higher in the GDM patients. A total of 88,371 circRNAs in umbilical cord blood exosomes from two groups were evaluated. Of these, 229 circRNAs were significantly up-regulated and 278 circRNAs were significantly down-regulated in the GDM patients. Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) biological pathway analyses demonstrated that circRNA parental genes involved in the regulation of metabolic process, growth and development were significantly enriched, which are important in GDM development and fetus growth. Further circRNA/miRNA interactions analysis showed that most of the exosomal circRNAs harbored miRNA binding sites, and some miRNAs were associated with GDM. Collectively, these results lay a foundation for extensive studies on the role of exosomal circRNAs in GDM development and fetus growth.

Highlights

Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is defined as glucose intolerance with onset or first recognition during pregnancy, which has become one of most common complications of pregnancy [1]
The results showed that the particle size was significantly larger (P
Our study is the first to construct Circular RNA (circRNA) differential expression profiling in umbilical cord blood exosomes of GDM patients as a starting point to explore the relationship between exosomal circRNAs and GDM development

Summary

Introduction

Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is defined as glucose intolerance with onset or first recognition during pregnancy, which has become one of most common complications of pregnancy [1]. Accumulating evidences suggested that GDM patients have a greater risk of pregnancy complications, such as cesarean delivery, shoulder dystocia, macrosomia, and neonatal hypoglycemia [3]. The GDM patients have an elevated risk for Type 2 diabetes (T2D) and metabolic syndrome [4]. For the offspring of GDM mothers, the adverse maternal environment may increase the risk of obesity, T2D and cardiovascular disease, later in life [5]. The theory ofDevelopmental Origin of Health and Disease (DOHaD)’ suggested that, the nutrition and nurturing environment in the first 1000 days of life (such as License 4.0 (CC BY)

Methods

Results

Conclusion