Exploring Relevant mRNAs and miRNAs in Injured Urethral Tissues of Rats with High-Throughput Sequencing

Acute urethral injuries caused by urethral endoscopy and other mechanical injuries are the main reasons for secondary infection and late urethral stricture. However, there are no studies to explore the transcriptomic changes in urethral injury and the molecular mechanism of urethral injury, which is important for the treatment and cure of urethral injury. Therefore, we used RNA-seq and sRNA-seq profiles from normal and injured urethral tissues to identify and characterize differentially expressed mRNAs and miRNAs. In total, we found 166 differentially expressed mRNAs, of which 69 were upregulated, and 97 were downregulated in injured urethral tissues. The differentially expressed mRNAs were mainly involved in the positive regulation of epithelial cell differentiation, focal adhesion, cell adhesion molecules, protein activation cascade, complement activation, complement and coagulation cascades, and chemokine-mediated signaling pathway. Additionally, we found six upregulated and four downregulated miRNAs, respectively, in the injured urethral tissues. Notably, their target genes were involved in the vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 2 binding, PI3k-Akt signaling pathway, and Notch signaling pathway. In summary, our results suggest that the cell damage response induced by mechanical injury activates the pathological immune response in a variety of ways in injured urethral tissues.