Profiling and Bioinformatics Analysis of Differentially Expressed circRNAs in Osteogenically Differentiated MSCs of Patients with Ankylosing Spondylitis

Recent studies have reported that circular RNAs (circRNAs) play a crucial regulatory role in a variety of human diseases. However, the roles of circRNAs in MSC osteogenesis in ankylosing spondylitis (AS) remain unclear. these results revealed the expression profiles of miRNAs and the potential functions of the DE miRNAs in the MSC of patients with AS, which may provide new clues for understanding the mechanisms of ossify associated with AS, and proceed to identify novel potential molecular targets for the diagnoses and treatment of AS. We conducted circRNA and miRNA expression profiling of osteogenically differentiated MSC of patients with AS compared with healthy donors (HD) by RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) and analyzed the potential functions of differentially expressed (DE) circRNA by Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analyses. The circRNA-miRNA interaction networks were also established.