Gene alterations in monocytes are pathogenic factors for immunoglobulin a nephropathy by bioinformatics analysis of microarray data

Abstract Background Immunoglobulin A nephropathy (IgAN) is the most frequent primary glomerulopathy worldwide. The study aimed to provide potential molecular biomarkers for IgAN management. Methods The public gene expression profiling GSE58539 was utilized, which contained 17 monocytes samples (8 monocytes samples isolated from IgAN patients and 9 monocytes samples isolated from healthy blood donors). Firstly, differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between the two kinds of samples were identified by limma package. Afterwards, pathway enrichment analysis was implemented. Thereafter, protein-protein interaction (PPI) network was constructed and key nodes in PPI network were predicted using four network centrality analyses. Ultimately, gene functional interaction (FI) was constructed according to expressions in each sample, and then module network was extracted from FI network. Results A total of 678 DEGs were screened out, of these, 72 DEGs were identified as crucial nodes in PPI network that could well distinguish IgAN and healthy samples. In particular, IL6, TNF, IL1B, PRKACA and CCL20 were closely related to pathways such as hematopoietic cell lineage, apoptosis and Toll-like receptor (TLR) signaling pathway. Moreover, 12 genes in the FI network belonged to the 72 identified key nodes, such as CCL20, HDAC10, FPR2 and PRKACA, which were also key genes in 4 module networks. Conclusions Several crucial genes were identified in monocytes of IgAN patients, such as IL6, TNF, IL1B, CCL20, PRKACA, FPR2 and HDAC10. These genes might co-involve in pathways such as TLR and apoptosis signaling during IgAN progression