Profiles for long non-coding RNAs in ovarian granulosa cells from women with PCOS with or without hyperandrogenism

Research question What is the expression pattern of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNA) in ovarian granulosa cells of women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) with or without hyperandrogenism? Design Microarray screening of lncRNA was conducted in ovarian granulosa cells collected from women with PCOS with hyperandrogenism (PCOS-T) or without hyperandrogenism (PCOS-N) and control participants, with four samples in each group. This was followed by hierarchy clustering, gene ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathway analyses. Several candidate lncRNA were randomly selected for quantitative polymerase chain reaction validation in another 54 patients. To predict the regulatory effect of lncRNA on hyperandrogenism, a co-expression network was plotted using differentially hexpressed lncRNA with statistical significance (≥ twofold; P < 0.05) in PCOS-T compared with PCOS-N. Results A total of 3000 and 1030 differentially expressed lncRNA (≥ twofold change) were detected in PCOS-T compared with control and PCOS-N, respectively. A total of 1361 differentially expressed lncRNA were detected in PCOS-N compared with controls. Corticotropin releasing hormone binding protein is consistently the up-regulated lncRNA with the highest fold-change in PCOS-T compared with either control or PCOS-N. Gene ontology and pathway analysis showed that dysregulated lncRNA in PCOS-T have a regulatory role in mitochondrial function by interacting with transcription factors such as YY1 and SIX5. Conclusions The expression patterns of lncRNA in women with PCOS were ascertained by microarray. Many lncRNA were differentially expressed in PCOS-T compared with PCOS-N, suggesting that they may play a key role in steroid genesis and metabolism.