RNA sequencing analyses in infants patients with coarctation of the aorta

Background Coarctation of the aorta (CoA) is a serious innate heart disease. Although surgery results are generally good, some complications such as recoarctation and aortic aneurysm or persistent hypertension were serious threats to patient's health. To better understand the pathology of CoA and its underlying molecular mechanism is particularly important for early diagnosis and preventing the occurrence of its complications. However, the mechanisms of CoA remain unclear, especially for infants. Methods RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) was used to identify the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in vascular tissues of 12 patients with CoA and 10 normal participants form 3- to 34-month-old infants. The characteristic of DEGs were validated by quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) and immunochemical staining (IHC) in vessels of patients with CoA and normal infants. Results A total of 2491 DEGs with the false discovery rate less than 0.05(> 1.5-fold, P Conclusion This study comprehensively characterized the CoA transcriptome. Migration of extracellular matrix (ECM) and smooth muscle cells (SMCs) to the subendothelial space may be the major characteristic of CoA in infants.