Profiles of immune infiltration in abdominal aortic aneurysm and their associated marker genes: a gene expression-based study

Abstract

Immune-mediated inflammation plays a key role in the pathology of abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA). We aimed to use a computational approach to profile the immune infiltration patterns and related core genes in AAA samples based on the overexpression of gene signatures. The microarray datasets of AAA and normal abdominal tissues were acquired from gene expression omnibus (GEO) database. We evaluated the composition of immune infiltrates through microenvironment cell populations (MCP)-counter. Weighted gene correlation network analysis (WGCNA) was employed to construct the co-expression network and extract gene information in the most relevant module. Functional and pathway enrichment analysis was performed and immune infiltration related core genes were screened. AAA tissues had a higher level of infiltration by cytotoxic lymphocytes, NK cells, T cells, fibroblasts, myeloid dendritic cells, and neutrophils than normal aorta. The red module was strongly correlated with the infiltrating levels of T cells and cytotoxic lymphocytes. Gene ontology (GO) and pathway analyses revealed that genes in the most relevant module were mainly enriched in T cell activation, regulation of lymphocyte activation, cytokine-cytokine receptor interaction, and chemokine signaling pathway, etc. The expression of GZMK, CCL5, GZMA, CD2, and EOMES showed significant correlations with cytotoxic lymphocytes, while CD247, CD2, CD6, RASGRP1, and CD48 expression were positively associated with T cell infiltration. In conclusion, we comprehensively analyzed profiles of infiltrated immune cells in AAA tissues and their associated marker genes. Our data may provide a novel clue to indicate the underlying molecular mechanisms of AAA formation in terms of immune infiltration.

Genome-Wide Identification of Immune-Related Alternative Splicing and Splicing Regulators Involved in Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm

“…In our study, compared with the WT group, a large number of gene transcription levels have changed, functional enrichment analysis of DEGs was conducted, and expression levels of immune genes changed in the WTA group. These suggested that there was regulation of immune-related genes in AAA, which was consistent with some previous reports ( Nie et al, 2020 ; Li T. et al, 2021 ).…”

POU class 2 homeobox associating factor 1 (POU2AF1) participates in abdominal aortic aneurysm enlargement based on integrated bioinformatics analysis

“…revealed several proteases involved in the formation and progression of AAA by next-generation sequencing of the whole transcriptome of Angiotensin II-treated ApoE−/− mice. Li et al [ 74 ]. comprehensively analyzed profiles of infiltrated immune cells in AAA tissues and their associated marker genes, which provided insights into the underlying mechanisms of AAA formation and progression regarding to immune infiltration.…”