Aberrant Expression of Long Non-coding RNAs in Exosomes in Follicle Fluid From PCOS Patients

Liping Wang; Hairui Fan; Yinggang Zou; Qiuyue Yuan; Xuming Hu; Xujing Chen; Chunhui Zhu; Xiaomei Zhang; Hengmi Cui

doi:10.3389/fgene.2020.608178

Aberrant Expression of Long Non-coding RNAs in Exosomes in Follicle Fluid From PCOS Patients

Front Genet. 2021 Feb 17:11:608178. doi: 10.3389/fgene.2020.608178. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Liping Wang^{1

2}, Hairui Fan³, Yinggang Zou⁴, Qiuyue Yuan⁵, Xuming Hu², Xujing Chen², Chunhui Zhu², Xiaomei Zhang¹, Hengmi Cui²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Biobank Clinical Medical College, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, China.
² Institute of Epigenetics and Epigenomics, College of Animal Science and Technology, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, China.
³ College of Animal Science and Technology, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, China.
⁴ Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, The Second Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, China.
⁵ College of Pharmacy, Dalian Medical University, Dalian, China.

Abstract

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a common reproductive endocrine disease characterized by persistent anovulation and hyperandrogenism, affecting approximately 8-10% of women of childbearing age and occupying an important position in the etiology of infertility. There is increasing evidence that long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are involved in the development of PCOS, but the potential regulatory mechanism is still unclear. This study performed high-throughput lncRNA sequencing of follicular fluid exosomes in non-PCOS infertility patients and PCOS infertility patients. The sequencing results led to the identification of 1,253 upregulated and 613 downregulated lncRNAs from a total of 1,866 detected candidates. There was no significant difference between the PCOS patients and non-PCOS patients in body mass index (BMI) or the fasting blood glucose (FBG) level. However, luteinizing hormone (LH), estradiol (E2), testosterone (T), serum prolactin (PRL), and anti-Mullerian hormone (AMH) levels were clearly upregulated in PCOS patients compared to those in non-PCOS patients. There was also an increase in LH/FSH (>2) in the PCOS patients. Functional analysis showed pathways related to endocytosis, the Hippo, the MAPK, and HTLV-1 infection. These results suggest that lncRNAs may play an important role in the pathogenesis of PCOS and may be potential targets for the diagnosis and treatment of PCOS.

Keywords: bioinformatics; exosomes; follicle fluid; long non-coding RNAs; polycystic ovary syndrome.