Potential Common Key Genes Associated with Chronic Periodontitis and Low Birth Weight: A Case Control Study Using Bioinformatics Analysis of Pooled mRNA Expression Datasets

Abstract

Background: Chronic periodontitis (CP) is a multifactorial disease associated with many systemic diseases. However, the precise association between CP and low birth weight (LBW) remains unclear. Therefore, this study aimed to elucidate common differentially expressed genes (DEGs), biomarker candidates, and upstream regulators related to key genes between CP and LBW.Methods: We investigated molecular relations and biomarker candidates using pooled microarray datasets of CP (GSE12484) and LBW (GSE29807) in the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO). Datasets were analyzed for common DEGs using GEO2R, an R-based web application for GEO data analysis. Common DEGs, biomarker candidates, and upstream regulators in DEGs between CP and LBW were analyzed using the Database for Annotation Visualization and Integrated Discovery (DAVID), Search Tool for the Retrieval of Interacting Genes (STRING), and QIAGEN’s Ingenuity Pathway Analysis (IPA).Results: Three significantly upregulated and 20 significantly downregulated common DEGs between CP and LBW were identified. Some biological processes and pathways of these downregulated genes were associated with the cell cycle. Biomarker candidates among common DEGs were proline-rich coiled-coil 2A (PPRC2A), topoisomerase (DNA) II alpha (TOP2A), neural cell adhesion molecule 1 (NCAM1), and calcium channel, voltage-dependent, alpha 2/delta subunit 3 (CACNA2D3). Many upstream regulators of these biomarker candidates were factors associated with inflammation, immunity, the cell cycle, and growth development, and were hormones related to pregnancy.Conclusions: The results of this study suggest that PPRC2A, TOP2A, NCAM1, and CACNA2D3 are common biomedical key genes between CP and LBW. The expression states of these genes, which are related to inflammation, hormones, the cell cycle, and growth development, were common in both CP and LBW in blood. To the best of our knowledge, the relations of PPRC2A, TOP2A, and CACNA2D3 to CP and LBW are reported for the first time. Thus, in the bloodstream, inflammatory-related upstream regulators of these key genes may control gene expression associated with fetal growth, and conversely, changes in female hormones due to pregnancy may affect the progress of CP.