Downregulation of circ_0000673 Promotes Cell Proliferation and Migration in Endometriosis via the Mir-616-3p/PTEN Axis

Endometriosis is a common gynecological disease, affecting up to 10% of women of reproductive age and approximately 50% of women with infertility. Circular RNAs (circRNAs) have been shown to be involved in a number of diseases. Dysregulated expression of circRNAs in endometriosis has been reported, and circ_0000673 was significantly downregulated. However, the details of its role in the pathogenesis of endometriosis are still poorly understood. We investigated the location and effects of the downregulation of circ_0000673 in endometriosis. We demonstrated that knockdown of circ_0000673 significantly increased the proliferation and migration of eutopic and normal endometrial cells. Bioinformatics analysis predicted that circ_0000673 might act as a sponge for miR-616-3p. We found that the effect of circ_0000673 knockdown could be recovered by miR-616-3p inhibitor and enhanced by miR-616-3p mimics. qPCR and western blot assays showed that circ_0000673 knockdown could decrease the expression of PTEN and increase the expression of PI3K and p-AKT. PTEN was confirmed to be a target of miR-616-3p. These results demonstrated that the downregulation of circ_0000673 could promote the progression of endometriosis by inactivating PTEN via the deregulation of miR-616-3p.