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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Genet.
Sec. Genetics of Common and Rare Diseases
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fgene.2025.1540721
Identification of potential crucial genes and mechanisms associated with Metabolically Unhealthy Obesity based on gene expression profile
Provisionally accepted
Qingqing Wang1
丝露 王2Zhanyu Zhuang2Xueting Wu2Hongkun Gao2Tianyi Zhang2Guorong Zou2
Xing Ge2*Yapeng Liu3- 1Xuzhou Children's Hospital, Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province, China
- 2Xuzhou Medical University, Xuzhou, China
- 3Yunlong District Center for Disease Control and Prevention, xuzhou, China
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Background: Obesity is an epidemic and systemic metabolic disease that seriously endangers human health. This study aimed to understand the transcriptome characteristics of the blood of metabolically unhealthy obesity (MUO), and to provide insight into the target genes of differently expressed microRNAs in the occurrence and development of MUO.The GSE146869, GSE145412, GSE23561 and GSE169290 datasets were analyzed to understand the transcriptome characteristics of the blood of MUO and to provide an insight into the target genes of differently expressed microRNAs in MUO.Functional and pathway enrichment analyses and Gene interaction network analyses were constructed to profile the function of differentially expressed genes (DEGs). In addition, MiRNet 2.0, TransmiR v2.0, RNA22, TargetScan 7.2, miRDB and miRWalk databases were performed to predict the target genes of effective microRNA.Results: 189 co-DEGs were identified in at least two datasets. The 156 co-upregulated genes were enriched into 29 biological processes (BP) terms and 12 KEGG pathways. Among the 29 BP terms, the immune-related BP and the metabolismrelated BP were enriched. The 33 co-down-regulated genes were enriched into 2 BP terms, including apoptotic process, regulation of the apoptotic process, and none KEGG pathway. The hub genes EGF, STAT3, IL1B, PF4, SELP and ITGA2B in the gene interaction network, might play important roles in abnormal BP in MUO.Among 19 DEMs identified in the blood of the MUO group by the GSE169290 dataset, 18 microRNA targeted 85 genes to be a risk factor in MUO.A network consisting of 18 microRNAs and 85 target genes might serve as a risk factor for metabolically unhealthy obesity.
Keywords: Metabolically unhealthy obesity, metabolic syndrome, Differentially expressed genes, Bioinformatics analysis, Differentially expressed microRNAs
Received: 06 Dec 2024; Accepted: 10 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wang, 王, Zhuang, Wu, Gao, Zhang, Zou, Ge and Liu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Xing Ge, Xuzhou Medical University, Xuzhou, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.