Transcriptome Analysis on Maternal Separation Rats with Depression-related Manifestations Ameliorated by Electroacupuncture

Objective: To investigate the mechanisms depression-related manifestations ameliorated by electroacupuncture on genome-wide transcriptomes of the frontal cortex at the molecular level, we evaluated unbiased genome-wide RNA sequencing of depression-related rats suffer from maternal separation (MS). Methods: Rats were randomly divided into control, MS, electro-acupuncture treatment(EA) group . We demonstrated depression-like behavior deficiencies in a sucrose preference test and a forced swimming test in a rat model with neonatal maternal separation. Repeated EA treatment at the acupoints Baihui (GV20) and Yintang (GV29) during the adult period was shown to be remarkably attenuated above behavioral deficits. Sequencing was performed using Hiseq Xten (Illumina, USA). Results: Based on the data from RNA-seq analysis, for mRNA, 48 genes were significantly and differentially expressed in MS rats relative to control rats, with 39 up-regulated genes and 9 down-regulated genes. 40 genes in the EA rats relative to the MS rats show differential expression, with 21 genes up-regulated and 18 genes down-regulated. For lncRNA, 11 genes increased significantly in the MS rats relative and 4 genes decreased relative to controls. 31 genes increased in the EA rats relative to the MS rats while 1 gene decreased. For circRNA, 20 genes increased significantly in the MS rats relative to control rats and 17 genes decreased. 18 genes increased in the EA rats relative to the MS rats while 28 genes decreased. Using ceRNA, we narrowed the targets of mRNA from 31 to 17 genes with a circRNA_miRNA_mRNA network, and narrowed the targets of mRNA from 31 to 8 genes with an lncRNA_miRNA_mRNA network, pointing the way for further studies to verify the genes and describe their function. Conclusions: Our investigation demonstrates the first analysis of the frontal cortex genome-wide transcriptomes in depression rats under maternal separation by RNA-seq technology. These results suggest that EA at GV20 and GV29 ameliorates depression-related manifestations by regulating the expression of multiple genes. Overall design: The frontal cortex profiles of the Rats after behavior test were generated by deep sequencing, in triplicate, using Hiseq Xten (Illumina, USA).