Circulating circRNA signature in pregnancies with gestational diabetes mellitus

Circular RNA can regulate blood glucose levels by targeting mRNA expression, but the role of circRNA in GDM is still unknown. Therefore, a joint microarray analysis of circRNAs and their targeting mRNAs using the peripheral blood of GDM patients and healthy pregnant women was carried out for the first time. In our study, high-throughput microarray sequencing technique was used to analyze the expression profile of circRNA and transcripts mRNA in the peripheral blood of GDM patients, in order to comprehensively evaluate the role of circRNAs targets and their parents genes in the signal pathways related to the pathogenesis of GDM. Some of the discovered circRNAs and their linear transcript mRNAs related to T cell receptor signaling pathway were further verified in larger samples by droplet digital PCR(ddPCR) and quantitative real-time PCR(qRT-PCR), respectively. The verification results confirmed the initial microarray results. CircRNA transcriptional spectrums of peripheral blood mononuclear cells between the GDM patients and the healthy controls were obtained through gene microarray technology.