Osteoporosis is a major public health problem that is associated with high morbidity and mortality, and its prevalence is increasing as the world's population ages. Therefore, understanding the molecular basis of the disease is becoming a high priority. In this regard, studies have shown that an imbalance in adipogenic and osteogenic differentiation of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) is associated with osteoporosis. In this study, we conducted a Weighted Gene Co-Expression Network Analysis to identify gene modules associated with the differentiation of bone marrow MSCs. Gene Ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genome enrichment analysis showed that the most significant module, the brown module, was enriched with genes involved in cell cycle regulation, which is in line with the initial results published using these data. In addition, the Cytoscape platform was used to identify important hub genes and lncRNAs correlated with the gene modules. Furthermore, differential gene expression analysis identified 157 and 40 genes that were upregulated and downregulated, respectively, after 3 h of MSCs differentiation. Interestingly, regulatory network analysis, and comparison of the differentially expressed genes with those in the brown module identified potential novel biomarker genes, including two transcription factors (ZNF740, FOS) and two hub genes (FOXQ1, SGK1), which were further validated for differential expression in another data set of differentiation of MSCs. Finally, Gene Set Enrichment Analysis suggested that the two most important candidate hub genes are involved in regulatory pathways, such as the JAK-STAT and RAS signaling pathways. In summary, we have revealed new molecular mechanisms of MSCs differentiation and identified novel genes that could be used as potential therapeutic targets for the treatment of osteoporosis.
Pubmed ID: 32280568 RIS Download
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Bioinformatics resource system including web server and web service for functional annotation and enrichment analyses of gene lists. Consists of comprehensive knowledgebase and set of functional analysis tools. Includes gene centered database integrating heterogeneous gene annotation resources to facilitate high throughput gene functional analysis.
View all literature mentionsComputable knowledge regarding functions of genes and gene products. GO resources include biomedical ontologies that cover molecular domains of all life forms as well as extensive compilations of gene product annotations to these ontologies that provide largely species-neutral, comprehensive statements about what gene products do. Used to standardize representation of gene and gene product attributes across species and databases.
View all literature mentionsInternational functional genomics data collection generated from microarray or next-generation sequencing (NGS) platforms. Repository of functional genomics data supporting publications. Provides genes expression data for reuse to the research community where they can be queried and downloaded. Integrated with the Gene Expression Atlas and the sequence databases at the European Bioinformatics Institute. Contains a subset of curated and re-annotated Archive data which can be queried for individual gene expression under different biological conditions across experiments. Data collected to MIAME and MINSEQE standards. Data are submitted by users or are imported directly from the NCBI Gene Expression Omnibus.
View all literature mentionsSoftware platform for complex network analysis and visualization. Used for visualization of molecular interaction networks and biological pathways and integrating these networks with annotations, gene expression profiles and other state data.
View all literature mentionsSoftware package for interpreting gene expression data. Used for interpretation of a large-scale experiment by identifying pathways and processes.
View all literature mentionsWeb tool to predict biological targets of miRNAs by searching for presence of conserved 8mer, 7mer and 6mer sites that match seed region of each miRNA. Nonconserved sites are also predicted and sites with mismatches in seed region that are compensated by conserved 3' pairing. Used to search for predicted microRNA targets in mammals.
View all literature mentionsIntegrated database resource consisting of 16 main databases, broadly categorized into systems information, genomic information, and chemical information. In particular, gene catalogs in completely sequenced genomes are linked to higher-level systemic functions of cell, organism, and ecosystem. Analysis tools are also available. KEGG may be used as reference knowledge base for biological interpretation of large-scale datasets generated by sequencing and other high-throughput experimental technologies.
View all literature mentionsSoftware that clusters a given network based on topology to find densely connected regions. It can be used to find protein complexes and parts of pathways in protein-protein interaction networks or protein families in protein similarity networks.
View all literature mentionsWeb service to analyze gene or protein lists. Provides automated meta analysis tools to understand pathways within a group of orthogonal target-discovery studies.
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