Purpose: Adipogenesis is one of the major pathways for generating obesity or overweight that can cause a range of metabolic disorders. Circular RNAs (circRNAs), a specific type of RNAs, have a significant influence on metabolic disorders. This study aims to find differentially expressed circRNAs (DECs) during human subcutaneous adipose tissue (SATs) adipogenesis.
Patients and Methods: The human adipose tissue-derived stromal cells (hADSCs) were isolated from human SATs (n = 3), and then induced into adipocytes. Total RNAs were extracted from hADSCs and adipocytes, and he DECs were detected using circRNA microarray. The GO and KEGG pathways of DECs were analyzed by bioinformatic methods, and partial DECs were further validated by quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR).
Results: Our study detected a total of 1987 DECs, among which, 1134 were found upregulated and 853 were downregulated. GO analysis showed that the upregulated DECs have catalytic activity in intracellular organelle and cytoplasms, whereas downregulated DECs are enriched in organelle lumen, and are involved in positive regulation of developmental process. In addition, pathway results demonstrated that upregulated DECs are involved in platinum drug resistance and cellular senescence, and downregulated DECs are enriched in proteoglycans in cancer and focal adhesion pathway. Two circRNAs, namely has_circ_0001600 and has_circ_0001947 were validated to be significantly upregulated in adipocytes compared to hADSCs.
Conclusion: Our study explored DECs between hADSCs derived from SATs and adipocytes, and report that two circRNAs named has_circ_0001600 and has_circ_0001947 might be important factors involved in human adipogenesis, however, the molecular mechanism should be further explored.

Keywords: circRNA microarray, subcutaneous adipose tissue, human adipose tissue-derived stromal cells, adipogenesis, SAT