Downregulation of Circ_0000673 Promotes Cell Proliferation and Migration in Endometriosis Via Suppressing PTEN

Abstract

\n Background: Endometriosis is a prevalent gynecologic disease, affecting up to 10% of women at reproductive age and approximately 50% of women with infertility. The function of circRNAs in various diseases has been highlighted. Dysregulated expression of circRNAs in endometriosis has been reported and circ_0000673 was significantly deregulated. However, its explicit role in pathogenesis of endometriosis is yet to be identified. Methods: circ_0000673 expression was detected in paried ectopic and eutopic endometrium using qPCR and fluorescent in situ hybridization. Knockdown of circ_0000673 in eutopic and normal endometrial stromal cells were done by transfection with lentivirus vectors. The proliferation activity of endometrial stromal cells was evaluated by CCK-8 assay and colony formation assay, while the migration capacity was valued by wound healing assay. PTEN, PI3K and p-AKT were detected by qPCR and western blotting. Dual luciferase assay was performed to assess the bonding between circ_0000673, PTEN and miR-616-3p.Results: The expression of circ_0000673 was reduced in ectopic endometrium. Knockdown of circ_0000673 significantly induced eutopic and normal endometrial cell proliferation and migration. Bioinformatic analysis predicted that circ_0000673 might sponge miR-616-3p. The effect of circ_0000673 knockdown could be recovered by miR-616-3p inhibitor and enhanced by miR-616-3p mimics. Meanwhile, qPCR and western blotting showed that circ_0000673 knockdown inhibited the expression of PTEN, and subsequently activated PI3K and p-Akt. Furthermore, PTEN was confirmed to be a target of miR-616-3p. Conclusion: The results demonstrated that deregulated expression of circ_0000673 could promote endometriosis progression via sponging miR-616-3p and further regulating PTEN.