Microarray analysis and functional prediction of differentially expressed circular RNAs in acquired middle ear cholesteatoma

BACKGROUND: Middle ear cholesteatoma is characterized by hyper-proliferation of keratinocytes. Circular RNA (circRNA) plays an essential role in the pathogenesis of many proliferative diseases. However, the role of circRNA in the etiopathogenesis of middle ear cholesteatoma is rarely investigated so far. We aimed to investigate the differential expression profiling of circRNAs between acquired middle ear cholesteatoma and normal skin, and to identify potential circRNAs contributing to the etiopathogenesis of middle ear cholesteatoma. Microarray analysis and functional prediction were performed to investigate the circRNA expression profiling between middle ear cholesteatoma and normal skin. Validation of differentially expressed circRNAs was conducted by qRT-PCR. Prediction of m(6)A modification was also carried out. RESULTS: Microarray analysis displayed that totally 93 up-regulated and 85 down-regulated circRNAs were identified in middle ear cholesteatoma. Through validation, expressions of hsa_circRNA_104327 and hsa_circRNA_404655 were significantly higher, while hsa_circRNA_000319 was significantly down-regulated in cholesteatoma. GO classification, KEGG pathway, and ceRNA network analyses suggested that these differentially expressed circRNAs might play important roles in the etiopathogenesis of middle ear cholesteatoma. Prediction of m(6)A modification exhibited that hsa_circRNA_000319 possessed 4 m(6)A sites with very high confidence, and hsa_circRNA_404655 had 3 m(6)A sites with high confidence. CONCLUSIONS: Our study revealed that these differentially expressed circRNAs might contribute to the etiopathogenesis of middle ear cholesteatoma. Further researches should be conducted to investigate the exact mechanism of these differentially expressed circRNAs in the etiopathogenesis of middle ear cholesteatoma. Targeting on these circRNAs may provide a new strategy for middle ear cholesteatoma therapy in the future. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12938-021-00960-x.