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Bustos-Aibar M, Aguilera CM, Alcalá-Fdez J, Ruiz-Ojeda FJ, Plaza-Díaz J, Plaza-Florido A, Tofe I, Gil-Campos M, Gacto MJ, Anguita-Ruiz A. Shared gene expression signatures between visceral adipose and skeletal muscle tissues are associated with cardiometabolic traits in children with obesity. Comput Biol Med 2023; 163:107085. [PMID: 37399741 DOI: 10.1016/j.compbiomed.2023.107085] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/25/2022] [Revised: 04/28/2023] [Accepted: 05/27/2023] [Indexed: 07/05/2023]
Abstract
Obesity in children is related to the development of cardiometabolic complications later in life, where molecular changes of visceral adipose tissue (VAT) and skeletal muscle tissue (SMT) have been proven to be fundamental. The aim of this study is to unveil the gene expression architecture of both tissues in a cohort of Spanish boys with obesity, using a clustering method known as weighted gene co-expression network analysis. For this purpose, we have followed a multi-objective analytic pipeline consisting of three main approaches; identification of gene co-expression clusters associated with childhood obesity, individually in VAT and SMT (intra-tissue, approach I); identification of gene co-expression clusters associated with obesity-metabolic alterations, individually in VAT and SMT (intra-tissue, approach II); and identification of gene co-expression clusters associated with obesity-metabolic alterations simultaneously in VAT and SMT (inter-tissue, approach III). In both tissues, we identified independent and inter-tissue gene co-expression signatures associated with obesity and cardiovascular risk, some of which exceeded multiple-test correction filters. In these signatures, we could identify some central hub genes (e.g., NDUFB8, GUCY1B1, KCNMA1, NPR2, PPP3CC) participating in relevant metabolic pathways exceeding multiple-testing correction filters. We identified the central hub genes PIK3R2, PPP3C and PTPN5 associated with MAPK signaling and insulin resistance terms. This is the first time that these genes have been associated with childhood obesity in both tissues. Therefore, they could be potential novel molecular targets for drugs and health interventions, opening new lines of research on the personalized care in this pathology. This work generates interesting hypotheses about the transcriptomics alterations underlying metabolic health alterations in obesity in the pediatric population.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mireia Bustos-Aibar
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology II, School of Pharmacy, University of Granada, 18071, Granada, Spain.
| | - Concepción M Aguilera
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology II, School of Pharmacy, University of Granada, 18071, Granada, Spain; Biomedical Research Networking Center for Physiopathology of Obesity and Nutrition, Carlos III Health Institute, 28029, Madrid, Spain.
| | - Jesús Alcalá-Fdez
- Department of Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence, Andalusian Research Institute in Data Science and Computational Intelligence (DaSCI), University of Granada, 18071, Granada, Spain.
| | - Francisco J Ruiz-Ojeda
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology II, School of Pharmacy, University of Granada, 18071, Granada, Spain; RG Adipocytes and Metabolism, Institute for Diabetes and Obesity, Helmholtz Diabetes Center at the Helmholtz Zentrum München, Neuherberg, 85764, Munich, Germany.
| | - Julio Plaza-Díaz
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology II, School of Pharmacy, University of Granada, 18071, Granada, Spain; Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute, Ottawa, ON K1H 8L1, Ontario, Canada.
| | - Abel Plaza-Florido
- PROmoting FITness and Health through physical activity research group, Sport and Health University Research Institute, Department of Physical Education and Sports, University of Granada, 18071, Granada, Spain; Pediatric Exercise and Genomics Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, School of Medicine, University of California at Irvine, Irvine, 92617, CA, United States.
| | - Inés Tofe
- Biomedical Research Networking Center for Physiopathology of Obesity and Nutrition, Carlos III Health Institute, 28029, Madrid, Spain; University Clinical Hospital, Institute Maimónides of Biomedicine Investigation of Córdoba, University of Córdoba, 14004, Córdoba, Spain.
| | - Mercedes Gil-Campos
- Biomedical Research Networking Center for Physiopathology of Obesity and Nutrition, Carlos III Health Institute, 28029, Madrid, Spain; University Clinical Hospital, Institute Maimónides of Biomedicine Investigation of Córdoba, University of Córdoba, 14004, Córdoba, Spain.
| | - María J Gacto
- Department of Software Engineering, University of Granada, 18071, Granada, Spain.
| | - Augusto Anguita-Ruiz
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology II, School of Pharmacy, University of Granada, 18071, Granada, Spain; Barcelona Institute for Global Health, ISGlobal, 08003, Barcelona, Spain.
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