Microarray analysis of the molecular mechanisms associated with age and body mass index in human meniscal injury

The aim of the present study was to identify genes and functional pathways associated with meniscal injuries affected by age or body mass index (BMI) using microarray analysis. The GSE45233 gene expression dataset with 12 injured meniscus samples associated with age and BMI and GSE66635 dataset with 12 injured and 12 normal meniscus samples were downloaded from the Gene Expression Omnibus database. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified based on age or BMI in GSE45233. DEGs between injured and normal meniscus samples in GSE66635 were also identified. Common DEGs between GSE45233 and GSE66635 were identified as feature genes associated with age or BMI, followed by protein-protein interaction (PPI) network and functional pathway enrichment analyses for the feature genes. Finally, the GSE51588 genome-wide expression profile was then downloaded from the GEO database to validate the results. A total of 1,328 DEGs were identified. Of these, 28 age-associated and 20 BMI-associated meniscal injury genes were obtained. B-cell lymphoma-2 (Bcl-2) and matrix metalloproteinase-14 were identified as hub genes in the PPI networks. Functional pathway enrichment analysis revealed that vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGFA), transferrin (TF) and Bcl-2 were involved in the hypoxia-inducible factor 1 signaling pathway. TF was involved in the mineral absorption function pathway associated with BMI. Additionally, TF and VEGFA were identified to be overlapping candidate genes of GSE45233 and GSE66635, and DEGs in GSE51588. Therefore, VEGFA, TF, and Bcl-2 may be important genes for human meniscal injuries. Additional evaluations of these results are required.