RNA Sequencing Reveals the Differentially Expressed circRNAs between Stable and Unstable Carotid Atherosclerotic Plaques

Figures

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  Figure 1. Profiles of circRNAs and their differential expressions comparing stable and unstable plaques. (a) The histogram displays 342 differentially expressed upregulated circRNAs and 2 downregulated circRNAs in unstable plaques, as compared with those of stable plaques. (b) The volcano plot shows the differentially expressed (DE) circRNAs in unstable plaques. The horizontal dashed-dotted line shows the adjusted P value of 0.05, and the vertical dashed-dotted lines represent the twofold change in genes. For the unstable plaques, upregulated circRNAs are indicated by red points, and downregulated circRNAs are displayed as blue points.

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  Figure 2. GO annotation of the host genes of the upregulated circRNAs. The bar plot displays the gene numbers of the top 20 GO terms with significant enrichment in the (a) biological process, (b) cellular component, and (c) molecular function categories.

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  Figure 3. KEGG enrichment for the host genes of the upregulated circRNAs. (a) The top 10 significantly enriched KEGG pathways of upregulated circRNAs are shown by the bar plot. The horizontal axis represents the enrichment scores (−log10[P value]). (b) Bulb map displays the enriched KEGG pathways of the host genes of upregulated circRNAs. The horizontal axis represents the enrichment degree of the upregulated genes. The vertical axis displays the different terms of the top 10 pathways enriched by upregulated genes. The number of enriched host genes of DE circRNAs is expressed by different node sizes. A color scale shows the different P values.

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  Figure 4. qRT-PCR validation of six DE circRNAs. Four upregulated circRNAs and two downregulated circRNAs from three stable and three unstable plaques are shown. ∗P < 0.05, ∗∗P < 0.01 compared with the stable plaques.