Overexpression of circRNA-001175 promotes proliferation and angiogenesis and inhibits apoptosis of the human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) induced by high glucose

Background: Circular RNA is a novel type of RNAs and may regulate gene expression in cells. It is also involved in various biological processes. The high glucose stress is one of the major risk factors for cardiovascular diseases. It can induce vascular endothelial cell apoptosis. However, the role and biological function of circRNA is still unclear under high glucose. The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of circRNAs in human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) induced by high glucose. Method and results: We investigated the expression pattern of circRNA-001175 and the cell proliferation, tubule formation and apoptosis of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) induced by high glucose. The real-time PCR results showed that the glucose treatments gradually decreased the expressions of circRNA-001175 in a concentration dependent manner. The CCK-8 assay showed that high glucose treatment significantly decreased the cell viability, while the decrease was reversed by the up-regulation of circRNA-001175. Also, the circRNA-001175 transfection showed protective effect on the proliferation decrease induced by high glucose treatment. The Hoechst staining and flow cytometry analysis showed that the Up-regulation of circRNA-001175 inhibits the HUVECs apoptosis induced by high glucose treatment. Furthermore, up-regulation of circRNA-001175 was observed to increases the tubule formation ability of HUVECs under high glucose. Conclusions: CircRNA-001175 may play a key role of protection on HUVECs from high glucose stress. CircRNA-001175 has great potential to become diagnostic or predictive biomarkers for high glucose disease and provide new insights into the treatment of diseases.