| INTRODUC TI ONCardiovascular diseases (CVD), including vascular remodelling diseases, are the leading cause of mortality among humans throughout the world. Abnormal proliferation of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) is a common feature of many vascular remodelling diseases, including atherosclerosis, 1 hypertension 2 and vascular aneurysms. 3 The regulation of VSMC proliferation has been considered a key event due to its major implications for the prevention of pathological vascular conditions. 4 Non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) form the dominant product of eukaryotic transcription, comprising over 73% of the human genome. 5 Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are a special novel type of endogenous ncRNAs, forming covalently closed-loop structures without 5′ caps Abstract Vascular smooth muscle cell (VSMC) proliferation is the pathological base of vascular remodelling diseases. Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are important regulators involved in various biological processes. However, the function of circRNAs in VSMC proliferation regulation remains largely unknown. This study was conducted to identify the key differentially expressed circRNAs (DEcircRNAs) and predict their functions in human aortic smooth muscle cell (HASMC) proliferation. To achieve this, DEcircRNAs between proliferative and quiescent HASMCs were detected using a microarray, followed by quantitative real-time RT-PCR validation. A DEcircRNA-miRNA-DEmRNA network was constructed, and functional annotation was performed using Gene Ontology (GO) and KEGG pathway analysis. The function of hsa_circ_0002579 in HASMC proliferation was analysed by Western blot. The functional annotation of the DEcircRNA-miRNA-DEmRNA network indicated that the four DEcircRNAs might play roles in the TGF-β receptor signalling pathway, Ras signalling pathway, AMPK signalling pathway and Wnt signalling pathway. Twenty-seven DEcircRNAs with coding potential were screened. Hsa_circ_0002579 might be a pro-proliferation factor of HASMC. Overall, our study identified the key DEcircRNAs between proliferative and quiescent HASMCs, which might provide new important clues for exploring the functions of circRNAs in vascular remodelling diseases. K E Y W O R D S circular RNAs, coding potential, HASMCs, microRNA sponge, proliferation | 4763 CHEN Et al.
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