circ-rna expression pattern and circ-rna-mirna-mrna network in the pathogenesis of humanintervertebral disc degeneration

Objective: the present study aimed to screen the differentially expressed (de) circular rnas (circ-rnas) between lumbar intervertebral disc degeneration (ivdd) and normal tissues. material and methods: in this experimental study, microarray hybridization was performed to evaluate circ-rna expression, and the de circ-rnas were confirmed by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qrt-pcr). host genes of de circ-rnas were predicted, and their functions were evaluated. further, a competitive endogenesis (ce) rna network among 4 de circ-rnas-mirna-mrna was constructed by cytoscape. results: a total of 2636 circ-rnas were detected in all samples; among them, 89.23% were exonic circ-rnas. there were 138 de circ-rnas, including 134 up-regulated circ-rnas and 4 downregulated circ-rnas in ivdd samples. qrt-pcr validation experiments showed that expression trends of hsa_circ_0003239, hsa_circ_0003162, hsa_circ_0005918, and hsa_circ_0005556 were in line with the microarray analysis results. functional enrichment analysis showed that host genes of de circ-rnas significantly disturbed pathways of regulation of actin cytoskeleton, propanoate metabolism, and erbb signaling pathway. the four de circ-rnas related cerna network was constructed. conclusions: our results revealed that circ-rnas can function as mirna sponges and regulate parent gene expression to affect ivdd.