Fig. 3

Silencing of p53 cause circRNAs expression alterations in HBE cells after Nano-ZnO treatment. A. For the time-response study, cells were treated with 30 μg/mL of Nano-ZnO for 4, 6, 12 and 24 h. For the dose–response study, cells were treated with 5, 30, 50, and 75 μg/mL of Nano-ZnO for 24 h. Cells without treatment were used as the “0”. Nuclear protein was subjected to Western blot analysis for the expression of. P53 and LIG4 proteins. B. For circRNAs RNA-seq assay, HBE cells were divided into p53-WTgroup and p53 knockout (p53-KO) group, after treatment with 30 μg/mL of Nano-ZnO for 24 h, cell were harvested and sent for RNA-seq. C. Numbers of up-regulated or down-regulated circRNAs in p53-KO cells compared with p53-WT cells after Nano-ZnO treatment. D. Volcano plot of up-regulated or down-regulated circRNAs in p53-KO cells compared with p53-WT cells after Nano-ZnO treatment. E. GO (Gene ontology) analysis was used to evaluate the changed circRNAs of its host genes’ potential biological function. F. KEGG (Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes) analysis was used to evaluate the changed circRNA of its host genes’ potential enriched pathway. 12 genes enrich to the signaling pathways related with cancer and signal transduction, 8 to the pathways related to amino acid metabolism, infectious diseases, replication and repair, 4 to the pathway of endocrine system. Data were expressed as the mean ± SD. Differences between two groups were analyzed by t-test