RESUMO
Intermittent hypoxia (IH) is an important pathophysiological feature of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), but its molecular mechanism is still unclear. We aim to investigate the role of endogenous competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) regulatory network in the development of IH in OSA rats. An intermittent hypoxic rat model of OSA was constructed by hypoxic and reoxygenation cycles. CircRNAs and mRNAs were detected in rat bronchial tissues, and 230 up-regulated and 181 down-regulated circRNAs and 1238 up-regulated and 608 down-regulated mRNAs were analyzed and screened. The results of Gene ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment analysis of the differential circRNAs and mRNAs suggested that they were mainly associated with metabolic pathways and PI3K-Akt signaling pathways. The key circRNAs (the top six circRNAs with the largest differences) were further validated by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR), chr9:52042693| 52047844 and chr4: 64889575|64899587 were expressed in bronchial tissues consistent with the sequencing results, which were used to further construct the ceRNA regulatory network. Four potential ceRNA regulatory networks were identified by TargetScan and miRanda database, combined with the results of differential circRNA and mRNA. The expression of molecules in the four potential ceRNA regulatory networks was detected by qRT-PCR in bronchial and lung tissues, and the results suggested that the expression of this regulatory network, chr9:52042693|52047844-miR-351-5p-Pten, was consistent with the sequencing results. The findings indicate that chr9:52042693 | 52047844-miR-351-5p-Pten may be involved in the development and progression of obstructive sleep apnea syndrome through a ceRNA mechanism.