Analysis of changes in circular RNA expression in human dilated cardiomyopathy

Circular RNAs (circRNAs) have been reported to play important roles in various cardiovascular diseases. However, their expression profile in human dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) has not been fully elucidated. In our study, heart samples from DCM patients and healthy controls were used to identify circRNAs by high-throughput sequencing. A total of 9585 circRNAs were identified in the DCM and control groups. To assess the differentially expressed circRNAs, the criteria were set as a fold change of = 2 or = 0.5 and a P value of < 0.05. Compared with circRNAs in the control group, 298 dysregulated circRNAs were identified in patients with DCM, of which 231 were upregulated and 85 were downregulated. In conclusion, our study evaluated cardiac circRNA expression in DCM by high-throughput sequencing and provide a foundation for future studies of circRNAs in DCM. Overall design: CircRNA expression profiles of dilated cardiomyopathy patients and healthy controls were generated by high-throughput sequencing