Innovative Potential Key Genes of Sepsis-Induced Myocardial Dysfunction Identified by RNA Sequencing and Bioinformatic Analysis

Abstract

Background: Sepsis has been a global public health concern for years, and the heart is one of the most vulnerable target organs in the septic internal environment. Nonetheless, there is still a lack of reasonable and effective treatment for sepsis-induced myocardial dysfunction. Despite some progress has been made owing to the application of high-throughput sequencing, the pathogenesis of sepsis-induced myocardial dysfunction still remains largely unexplained.

Methods: RNA sequencing results from lipopolysaccharide-induced mouse models and the GEO dataset (GSE79962) from patients were used for cross-species co-analysis to obtain differentially expressed genes shared by both. Bioinformatic analyses were used to delve deeper into their function, tissue specificity, and interactions. Exogenous datasets and qRT-PCR experiments were used for validation.

Results: 73 overlapping regulated genes were identified. Three genes showed consistent tissue specificity between the two species. The protein-protein interaction network was constructed, and its key module was extracted. Ten differentially expressed genes were selected as genes of interest. The differential expression of eight genes was verified to be statistically significant by exogenous datasets and experiments.

Conclusion: It was considered that Cebpd, Timp1, Serpine2, Pnp, Osmr, Tgm2, Cp, and Asb2 were newly identified potential key genes for sepsis-induced myocardial dysfunction.

Note:
Funding Information: This study was supported by the Hunan Provincial Key Research and Development Program (NO. 2023SK2030), and the China Medical Board OC program (NO. 21-426).

Declaration of Interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

Ethics Approval Statement: All animal experimental procedures (Approval No. 20220173) were reviewed and approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of the Second Xiangya Hospital, Central South University (Changsha, China), and implemented in accordance with the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals (Eighth Edition).

Keywords: sepsis-induced myocardial dysfunction, RNA sequencing, bioinformatic analysis, cross-species, potential key gene