Weighted Gene Co-Expression Network Analysis Identifies Specific Modules and Hub Genes Related to Hyperlipidemia

The present study attempted to identify the potential key genes and pathways of hyperlipidemia, and to investigate the possible mechanisms associated with them.

The array data of GSE3059 were downloaded, including thirteen samples of hyperlipidemia from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database. The weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) was performed with WGCNA package, and the salmon and midnight blue modules were found as the highest correlation. Gene Ontology annotation and the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment analyses for these two modules were performed by cluster Profiler and DOSE package. A protein-protein interaction (PPI) network was established using Cytoscape software, and significant modules were analyzed using Molecular Complex Detection.

Five genes (histone deacetylase 4, HDAC4; F2R like trypsin receptor 1, F2RL1; abhydrolase domain containing 2, ABHD2; transmembrane 4 L six family member 1, TM4SF1; and family with sequence similarity 13-member A, FAM13A) were found with a significant meaning. When their expression levels were validated with RT-qPCR, the relative expression levels were lower (HDAC4) and higher (F2RL1, ABHD2, TM4SF1 and FAM13A) in hyperlipidemia than in normal controls (P < 0.05-0.01). Subgroup analysis showed that the relative expression levels of HDAC4 were lower, whereas those of F2RL1 and ABHD2 were higher in Maonan than in Han ethnic groups (P < 0.05).

Except for genetic factors and environmental exposures, epigenetic influence was another mechanism of hyperlipidemia in our study populations, which needed to further confirm.