RNA Sequencing Facilitates Quantitative Analysis of Schwann cells Transcriptomes

Purpose: Whole-transcriptome sequencing technology and bioinformatics analysis were applied to systematically analyze the differentially expressed mRNAs, lncRNAs and miRNAs in SCs from DPN rats and control rats. Methods: mRNA, lncRNA and miRNA profiles of Schwann cells from DPN rats and control rats were generated by RNA sequencing, using Illumina Xten. The sequence reads that passed quality filters were analyzed at the transcript isoform level by using sequence analysis programs, including HISAT, Stringtie and DESeq2. qRT–PCR validation was performed using Takara, Vazyme and Clontech kits. Results: The data showed that 2925 mRNAs, 164 lncRNAs and 49 miRNAs were significantly differently expressed in SCs from DPN rats compared with control rats, with a fold change ≥1.2 or ≤ 0.833 and p value <0.05 . The results of qRT-PCR confirmed 13 mRNAs, 7 lncRNAs and 7 miRNAs which were consistent with the RNA-seq data. Functional and pathway analyses revealed that many enriched biological processes of GO terms and pathways were relevant to the function of SCs and the pathogenesis of DPN. Our study is the first to detect and analyze mRNAs, lncRNAs and miRNAs changes in Schwann cells from STZ-treated rats with DPN and reveal the novel interactions between dysregulated RNAs and the pathogenesis of DPN. Our data show that dysregulated RNAs have complicated interactions between them and play critical roles in regulating functions of SCs involved in the pathogenesis of DPN mRNA, lncRNA and miRNA profiles of Schwann cells from DPN rats and control rats were generated by RNA sequencing, using Illumina Xten.