Altered Circular RNA Expression in Patients with Repeated Implantation Failure.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: CircRNAs play an important role in regulating gene expression and the specific role of circRNAs in the pathogenesis of repeated implantation failure remains unclear. The aim of this study is to assess the differentially expressed circRNAs in patients with repeated implantation failure.

METHODS: We screened circRNA expression profiles in endometrial biopsies taken from six women with repeated implantation failure and control group using circRNA microarray. Bioinformatic analyses were applied to study these differentially expressed circRNAs. Furthermore, quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) was performed to confirm these results.

RESULTS: The data from circRNA microarrays clearly revealed that 856 unique circRNAs were significantly altered (p<0.05). The up-regulated expression of hsa_circRNA_070616, hsa_circRNA_103716, hsa_circRNA_104001, hsa_circRNA_104854 and the down-regulated expression of hsa_circRNA_004183, hsa_circRNA_044353, hsa_circRNA_404686 were further validated by qRT-PCR.

CONCLUSION: this study demonstrates that a number of circRNAs were differentially expressed in patients with repeated implantation failure compared with normal controls and may offer novel molecular candidates for diagnosis and clinical treatment of embryo implantation failures.