Aberrant expression of lncRNAs and mRNAs in patients with intracranial aneurysm

Intracranial aneurysm (IA) is pathological dilatations of the cerebral artery and rupture of IAs can cause subarachnoid hemorrhage, which has a high ratio of fatality and morbidity. However, the pathogenesis of IAs remains unknown. We performed long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) and messenger RNA (mRNA) expression profiles in IA tissues and superficial temporal arteries (STAs). A total of 4129 differentially expressed lncRNAs and 2926 differentially expressed mRNAs were obtained from the microarrays (P < 0.05). Gene ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway analyses showed that up-regulated mRNAs were enriched in immune response, inflammatory response, regulation of immune response and lysosome, et al; while the down-regulated mRNAs were enriched in muscle contraction, smooth muscle contraction, cGMP-PKG signaling pathway and vascular smooth muscle contraction, et al. The lncRNA-mRNA co-expression networks were represented in immune response, inflammatory response, muscle contraction and vascular smooth muscle contraction. These findings may gain insight in the pathogenesis of IAs and provide clues to find key roles for IA patients.