Prognostic Signature for Human Umbilical Cord Mesenchymal Stem Cell Treatment of Ischemic Cerebral Infarction by Integrated Bioinformatic Analysis

In recent studies, stem cell-based therapy is a potential new approach in the treatment of stroke. The mechanism of human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cell (hUMSC) transplantation as one of the new approaches in the treatment of ischemic stroke is still unclear. The aim of this study was to determine the traits of immune responses during stroke progression after treatment with human umbilical cord blood MSCs by bioinformatics, to predict potential prognostic biomarkers that could lead to sex differences, and to reveal potential therapeutic targets. The microarray dataset GSE78731 (mRNA profile) of middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) rats was obtained from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database. First, two potentially expressed genes (DEGs) were screened using the Bioconductor R package. Ultimately, 30 specific DEGs were obtained (22 upregulated and 353 downregulated). Next, bioinformatic analysis was performed on these specific DEGs. We performed a comparison for the differentially expressed genes screened from between the hUMSC and MCAO groups. Gene Ontology enrichment and pathway enrichment analyses were then performed for annotation and visualization. Gene Ontology (GO) functional annotation analysis shows that DEGs are mainly enriched in leukocyte migration, neutrophil activation, neutrophil degranulation, the external side of plasma membrane, cytokine receptor binding, and carbohydrate binding. KEGG pathway enrichment analysis showed that the first 5 enrichment pathways were cytokine-cytokine receptor interaction, chemokine signal pathway, viral protein interaction with cytokine and cytokine receptor, cell adhesion molecules (CAMs), and phagosome. The top 10 key genes of the constructed PPI network were screened, including Cybb, Ccl2, Cd68, Ptprc, C5ar1, Il-1b, Tlr2, Itgb2, Itgax, and Cd44. In summary, hUMSC is likely to be a promising means of treating IS by immunomodulation.