Analysis of Long Noncoding RNAs in Choroid Neovascularization

ABSTRACT

Purpose: Choroidal neovascularization (CNV) is the major pathological features of wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Long noncoding RNAs play great roles in numerous biological processes. The purpose of the study was to investigate the expression profile and possible functions of the lncRNAs in CNV.

Methods: In this study, the mice CNV model were conducted by laser photocoagulation. The expression profiles of lncRNAs were accessed by microarray analysis. Selected altered lncRNAs of mice CNV and wet AMD patients were validated by RT-PCR. Gene Ontology (GO), Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway and lncRNA-mRNA coexpression network were conducted to reveal the biological functions.

Results: The results revealed that 128 lncRNAs were significantly altered in RPE-choroid-sclera complexes of CNV mice (P < .05, fold change > 2.0). GO analysis revealed that the altered target genes of the selected lncRNAs most enriched in angiogenesis. KEGG pathway analysis demonstrated that altered target genes of lncRNAs most enriched in focal adhesion signaling pathway. H19 was significantly increased in the aqueous humor of wet AMD patients. Moreover, Inhibition of lncRNA H19 could suppresses M2 macrophage gene expression of laser-induced CNV mice.

Conclusions: Our study identified differential expressions of lncRNAs in CNV, and lncRNA H19 might be novel potential target for the prevention and treatment of CNV.

KEYWORDS:

• Long noncoding RNA
• choroidal neovascularization
• microarray analysis
• bioinformatics analyses
• M2 macrophage

Authors’ contributions

P. Zhang and B. Lu contributed equally to this study.

Conflicts of interests

The authors declare that they have no conflcts of interest.

Ethics approval and consent to participate

The ethics committee of the Wannan Medical College ethically approved the present study. All patients provided written informed consent prior to the operation.

Patient consent for publication

all patients provided written informed consent prior to the operation. All patients provided consent for publication.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant No. 81700867], National Science Foundation of Anhui Province, China [grant No. 1808085MH253], Talent Cultivation and International Academic Visiting Project for College Scholar of Anhui Province, China [grant No. gxgwfx2019034] and Cross Funding of Shanghai Jiao Tong University [YG2017QN31].