Analysis of CircRNA Expression Profile of Pathological Bone Formation in Ankylosing Spondylitis

Abstract Objective: To screen and analyze the function of specific circular RNA involved of pathological bone formation in ankylosing spondylitis. Methods: From September 2019 to October 2020, Ossification capsule of 3 patients with ankylosing spondylitis developed hip joint fusion and capsule of 3 patients with femoral neck fracture were enrolled as the experimental group and the control group, respectively. The circular RNA expressions of hip capsule were analyzed by arraystar circRNA chip, bioinformatics analyses including the circRNA/miRNA/mRNA interaction network, Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway analysis.Results: The results showed that there totally were 25 up-regulated and 39 down-regulated differential circRNAs, among these circRNAs,we screened most up-regulated 10 circRNAs and most down-regulated 13 circRNAs in ankylosing spondylitis (FC≥2,P＜0.05). Further analysis demonstrated that two signal ways were most involved and correslated with the different circRNAs-“Focal Adhesion signal pathway” and “Rap1 signal pathway” Conclusion: The circular RNAs involved of pathological bone formation in ankylosing spondylitis were significantly different from that of the control group. These differentially expressed circular RNAs may be closely related to the occurrence and development of pathological bone formation in ankylosing spondylitis. Key words: CircRNA, Ankylosing spondylitis, Gene chip, Pathological bone formation