Transcriptomic profiling identifies differentially expressed genes and related pathways associated with wound healing and cuproptosis-related genes in Ganxi goats

INTRODUCTION: Wound healing is very important for the maintenance of immune barrier integrity, which has attracted wide attention in past 10 years. However, no studies on the regulation of cuproptosis in wound healing have been reported. METHODS: In this study, the skin injury model was constructed in Gnxi goats, and the function, regulatory network and hub genes of the skin before and after the injury were comprehensively analyzed by transcriptomics. RESULTS: The results showed that there were 1,438 differentially expressed genes (DEGs), genes up-regulated by 545 and genes down-regulated by 893, which were detected by comparing day 0 and day 5 posttraumatic skin. Based on GO-KEGG analysis, DEGs that were up-regulated tended to be enriched in lysosome, phagosome, and leukocyte transendothelial migration pathways, while down-regulated DEGs were significantly enriched in adrenergic signaling in cardiomyocytes and calcium signaling pathway. There were 166 overlapped genes (DE-CUGs) between DEGs and cuproptosis-related genes, with 72 up-regulated DE-CUGs and 94 down-regulated DE-CUGs. GOKEGG analysis showed that up-regulated DE-CUGs were significantly enriched in ferroptosis, leukocyte transendothelial migration and lysosome pathways, while down-regulated DE-CUGs were significantly enriched in Apelin signaling pathway and tyrosine metabolism pathways. By constructing and analyzing of protein–protein interaction (PPI) networks of DEGs and DE-CUGs, 10 hub DEGs (ENSCHIG00000020079, PLK1, AURKA, ASPM, CENPE, KIF20A, CCNB2, KIF2C, PRC1 and KIF4A) and 10 hub DE-CUGs (MMP2, TIMP1, MMP9, MMP14, TIMP3, MMP1, EDN1, GCAT, SARDH, and DCT) were obtained, respectively. DISCUSSION: This study revealed the hub genes and important wound healing pathways in Ganxi goats, and identified the correlation between wound healing and cuproptosis for the first time, and found that MMP2, TIMP1, MMP9, and EDN1 were the core genes associated. This study enriched the transcriptome data of wound healing in Ganxi goats and expanded the research direction of cuproptosis.