Castration induced circRNA expressional changes in subcutaneous adipose tissue of male pigs

Circular RNAs (circRNAs) participated in regulation of lipid metabolism; however, its functional role on castration-induced lipid deposition has not been deeply researched. So in this research, we firstly compared circRNAs expressional differences in subcutaneous adipose tissue between intact and castrated male Huainan pigs. A total of 6116 differentially expressed circRNAs (DECs) were detected between these two groups (|log₂ foldchange| ≥ 1 and p_adj  ≤ 0.05); GO and KEGG analysis showed that their parent genes were mainly enriched in metabolism-related pathway. And TGF-beta, insulin, AMPK, and MAPK pathways might play vital role in castration-induced lipid deposition. The miRNAs enriched in the constructed circRNA-miRNA network were mainly participated in adipogenesis and lipid metabolism, such as miR-143a-3p, miR-378, and miR-195. And it was verified that testosterone upregulated miR-181a but downregulated circ_0005912 expression in a dose-dependent manner in porcine intramuscular adipocytes, and overexpression of miR-181a inhibited circ_0005912. Taken together, these DECs may participate in the regulation of lipid metabolism after castration by reaction with miRNAs, which indicated the novel role of circRNAs in castration-induced lipid deposition.