Abstract: 【Abstract】 Objective To investigate differentially expressed long noncoding RNAs （lncRNAs） and mRNAs between proliferating and involuting infantile hemangioma （IH）. Methods Eight IH specimens were surgically resected from 4 children with proliferating IH and 4 with involuting IH in Department of Pediatric Surgery, West China Hospital, Sichuan University from January to March in 2019. Differentially expressed lncRNAs and mRNAs between proliferating and involuting IH （a P value < 0.05 and a fold change ≥ 2.0） were screened by microarray analysis, and verified by real-time fluorescence-based quantitative PCR （qRT-PCR）. Bioinformatics analysis was further performed, including GO and KEGG pathway analyses of differentially expressed mRNAs, construction of a lncRNA-mRNA co-expression network, and prediction of cis-acting target genes of differentially expressed lncRNAs. Results A total of 405 differentially expressed lncRNAs and 772 differentially expressed mRNAs were identified between the proliferating and involuting IH specimens by using microarray technology. Of them, 108 lncRNAs and 107 mRNAs were downregulated, 297 lncRNAs and 665 mRNAs were upregulated in the proliferating IH specimens. Four lncRNAs （n335248, ENST00000450864, n333319, and n335185） and 4 mRNAs （EDNRA, IFI6, HK2, and ITGA1） were verified by qRT-PCR, and the results were consistent with those of microarray analysis. GO and KEGG enrichment analyses showed that differentially expressed mRNAs were mainly involved in the biological processes blood coagulation, axon guidance, angiogenesis and cell adhesion. Besides, differentially expressed mRNAs were mostly enriched in the metabolic pathways focal cell adhesion, regulation of actin cytoskeleton, leukocyte transendothelial migration and phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase/serine-threonine protein kinase and other signaling pathways. In addition, a lncRNA-mRNA co-expression network was constructed with 23 mRNAs and 58 lncRNAs with the degree ≥ 15. Conclusion Lots of differentially expressed lncRNAs and mRNAs were identified between proliferating and involuting IH tissues, and these lncRNAs may play important roles in the development of IH by regulating corresponding target mRNAs.

Key words: Hemangioma, Infant, Untranslated regions, RNA, messenger, Computational biology, Oligonucleotide array sequence analysis, Long noncoding RNA