Weighted Gene Co-expression Network Analysis for RNA-Sequencing Data of the Varicose Veins Transcriptome

作者：Jianbin Zhang, Qiangqiang Nie, Chaozeng Si, Cheng Wang, Yang Chen, Weiliang Sun, Lin Pan, Jing Guo, Jie Kong, Yiyao Cui, Feng Wang, Xueqiang Fan, Zhidong Ye, Jianyan Wen, Peng Liu · 发表于：Frontiers in Physiology · 年份：2019 · DOI：10.3389/fphys.2019.00278 · 被引用次数：26 · 研究领域：Diagnosis and Treatment of Venous Diseases、Body Contouring and Surgery、Cardiac Valve Diseases and Treatments

OBJECTIVE: Varicose veins are a common problem worldwide and can cause significant impairments in health-related quality of life, but the etiology and pathogenesis remain not well defined. This study aims to elucidate transcriptomic regulations of varicose veins by detecting differentially expressed genes, pathways and regulator genes. METHODS: We harvested great saphenous veins (GSV) from patients who underwent coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) and varicose veins from conventional stripping surgery. RNA-Sequencing (RNA-Seq) technique was used to obtain the complete transcriptomic data of both GSVs from CABG patients and varicose veins. Weighted Gene Co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) and further analyses were then carried out with the aim to elucidate transcriptomic regulations of varicose veins by detecting differentially expressed genes, pathways and regulator genes. RESULTS: From January 2015 to December 2016, 7 GSVs from CABG patients and 13 varicose veins were obtained. WGCNA identified 4 modules. In the brown module, gene ontology (GO) analysis showed that the biological processes were focused on response to stimulus, immune response and inflammatory response, etc. Kyoto encyclopedia of genes and genomes (KEGG) pathway analysis showed that the biological processes were focused on cytokine-cytokine receptor interaction and TNF signaling pathway, etc. In the gray module, GO analysis showed that the biological processes were skeletal myofibril assembly related. T...