Analysis of miRNA expression profiles in melatonin-exposed GC-1 spg cell line

Abstract Melatonin is an endocrine neurohormone secreted by pinealocytes in the pineal gland. It exerts diverse physiological effects, such as circadian rhythm regulator and antioxidant. However, the functional importance of melatonin in spermatogenesis regulation remains unclear. The objectives of this study are to: (1) detect melatonin affection on miRNA expression profiles in GC-1 spg cells by miRNA deep sequencing (DeepSeq) and (2) define melatonin affected miRNA–mRNA interactions and associated biological processes using bioinformatics analysis. GC-1 spg cells were cultured with melatonin (10 − 7  M) for 24 h. DeepSeq data were validated using quantitative real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction analysis (qRT-PCR). A total of 176 miRNA expressions were found to be significantly different between two groups (fold change of > 2 or