Identification and Analysis of Differentially Expressed Ferroptosis-Related Genes in Microtia

Microtia is a congenital auricle deformity that might be caused by the abnormal development of the auricular cartilage during the pregnancy. The ferroptosis has been identified to be associated with quite number of diseases related to the cartilage. So the aim of this study is to reveal the genetic relationship between the microtia and the ferroptosis through an approach of bioinformatics analysis and provide inspiration for subsequent research in this field. In this study, the online gene expression profile GSE242921, along with the FerrDB database, was utilized to screen the differentially expressed genes related to the ferroptosis in microtia. The top 10 differentially expressed ferroptosis-related genes identified in this analysis are STAT3, CDH1, HRAS, CDKN2A, SLC1A5, PTPN6, DDR2, FURIN, SMAD7, and IFNA6, and the transcription factors with degree no <5 of aforementioned genes are FOXC1, USF2, GATA2, CREB1, E2F1, and TFAP2A. In general, there is a close and non-negligible link between ferroptosis and microtia at the genetic level, but the genetic mechanisms underlying the role of ferroptosis in the pathogenetic process of microtia still need more experimental data to determine.