Identification and verification of key genes in varicocele rats through high‐throughput sequencing and bioinformatics analysis

AndrologiaVolume 52, Issue 9 e13662 ORIGINAL ARTICLE Identification and verification of key genes in varicocele rats through high-throughput sequencing and bioinformatics analysis Jun Zhu, Department of Urology, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, Tianjin, ChinaSearch for more papers by this authorNingjing Ou, Department of Urology, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, Tianjin, ChinaSearch for more papers by this authorYuxuan Song, Department of Urology, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, Tianjin, ChinaSearch for more papers by this authorRui Hu, Department of Urology, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, Tianjin, ChinaSearch for more papers by this authorWei Zhang, Department of Urology, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, Tianjin, ChinaSearch for more papers by this authorZhen Liang, orcid.org/0000-0003-0174-6341 Department of Urology, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, Tianjin, ChinaSearch for more papers by this authorYongjiao Yang, Department of Urology, The Second Hospital of Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin, ChinaSearch for more papers by this authorXiaoqiang Liu, Corresponding Author 15122926116@163.com orcid.org/0000-0002-8260-9412 Department of Urology, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, Tianjin, China Correspondence Xiaoqiang Liu, Department of Urology, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, Tianjin, China. Email: 15122926116@163.comSearch for more papers by this author Jun Zhu, Department of Urology, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, Tianjin, ChinaSearch for more papers by this authorNingjing Ou, Department of Urology, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, Tianjin, ChinaSearch for more papers by this authorYuxuan Song, Department of Urology, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, Tianjin, ChinaSearch for more papers by this authorRui Hu, Department of Urology, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, Tianjin, ChinaSearch for more papers by this authorWei Zhang, Department of Urology, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, Tianjin, ChinaSearch for more papers by this authorZhen Liang, orcid.org/0000-0003-0174-6341 Department of Urology, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, Tianjin, ChinaSearch for more papers by this authorYongjiao Yang, Department of Urology, The Second Hospital of Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin, ChinaSearch for more papers by this authorXiaoqiang Liu, Corresponding Author 15122926116@163.com orcid.org/0000-0002-8260-9412 Department of Urology, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, Tianjin, China Correspondence Xiaoqiang Liu, Department of Urology, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, Tianjin, China. Email: 15122926116@163.comSearch for more papers by this author First published: 27 May 2020 https://doi.org/10.1111/and.13662 Zhu, Ou, and Song contributed equally to this work. Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onEmailFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Abstract Varicocele (VC) is the most common treatable cause of infertility, but it is difficult to distinguish fertile from infertile VC populations because the pathogenesis is unclear. In order to study the related mechanism of VC causing male sterility, we made VC rat model by surgery, analysed the rat epididymal spermatozoa and used the transcriptome sequencing to compare all the mRNA expression differences in testicular tissue between VC rats and control rats. The differentially expressed genes (DEGs) of testicular tissue were also screened by the limma package in R software (version 3.6.1). The 273 DEGs were identified from the four profile data sets including 124 up-regulated genes and 149 down-regulated genes in the VC group compared to control group. We found that Sod1, Casp9, Atg7, Casp3 and Sirt1 in module 1 had higher degrees of connectivity in the first 10 hub genes. Gene ontology (GO) functional enrichment analysis and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment analysis demonstrated that Sod1, Casp9, Atg7, Casp3 and Sirt1 are enriched in regulation of oxidative stress-induced cell death (GO:1,903,201) and Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (KEGG:05,014). From the above evidence, we speculate that hypoxia plays an important role in the occurrence and development of VC, and it induced the abnormal expression of autophagy and apoptosis-related proteins may involve in the development of VC-associated infertility. Sod1, Casp9, Atg7, Casp3 and Sirt1 as well as their module are hub genes for VC, which will have attractive applications to provide new treatment targets for VC. Volume52, Issue9October 2020e13662 RelatedInformation