Profiling and Bioinformatics Analysis of Differentially Expressed circRNAs in Spinal Ligament Tissues of Patients with Ankylosing Spondylitis

Figure 1

Differential expression profiles of circular RNAs (circRNAs) in spinal ligament tissue from patients with AS and controls by RNA-seq. (a) Length distribution of circRNAs was identified in this study. Orange represents differentially expressed circRNAs with statistical significance ( value < 0.05 and fold ), and blue represents the circRNAs with no any changes in expression between the two groups (). (b) Distribution of identified circRNAs on human chromosomes. The length of the lines represents the relative size of fold change, and red and blue indicate the upregulated and downregulated circRNAs, respectively. (c) The scatter plot of circRNA expression between the two groups. The dots in the figure represents circRNAs. Compared with the controls, the red dots and green dots, respectively, indicate the upregulated and downregulated circRNA expressions in the spinal ligament tissues of AS patients ( value < 0.05 and fold ), and the blue dots indicate no change in circRNA expression. (d) The volcano plot depicting circRNA expression profiles in the spinal ligament tissues of the two groups. The two vertical blue lines refer to a 1.5-fold (log2 fold change) upregulation and downregulation, respectively. The horizontal blue line corresponds to a value of 0.05 (−log10 value). Compared with the controls, the red and green dots, respectively, indicate upregulated and downregulated circRNA expressions in the spinal ligament tissues of patients with AS ( value < 0.05 and fold ). (e) Hierarchical clustering analysis of circRNAs that were significantly differentially expressed ( value < 0.05 and fold ) in the spinal ligament tissue between the two groups. (f) Categories of differentially expressed circRNAs based on their genomic origin.

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

(e)

(f)