Transcriptome-wide N6-methyladenosine modification profiling of long non-coding RNAs in patients with recurrent implantation failure

Abstract

N6-methyladenosine (m⁶A) is involved in most biological processes and actively participates in the regulation of reproduction. According to recently research, long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) and their m⁶A modifications are involved in reproductive diseases. In the present study, using m⁶A modified RNA immunoprecipitation sequencing (m⁶A-seq), the m⁶A methylation transcription profiles in recurrent implantation failure (RIF) were established for the first time. 1443 significantly up-regulated m⁶A peaks and 425 significantly down-regulated m⁶A peaks were identified in RIF. Gene Ontology (GO) analysis and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment analysis revealed that genes associated differentially methylated lncRNAs were involved in classical p53 signaling pathway and amino acid metabolism. Then, competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) network revealed a regulatory relationship between lncRNAs, microRNAs (miRNAs) and mRNAs. The m⁶A methylation abundances of lncRNAs were verified by m⁶A-RNA immunoprecipitation (MeRIP)-qPCR in this study. This study will lay a foundation for further exploration of the potential role of m⁶A modification in the pathogenesis of RIF.