Abstract:

Objective Investigation of the expression and clinical significance of circular RNA hsa_circ_0003922 in endometrioid carcinoma （EEC）. Methods Three EEC tissues and three normal endometrial tissues were selected for high-throughput molecular sequencing to identify specific circRNAs and related functional molecules. Additionally， 36 EEC patients were selected as the experimental group， while 36 patients with benign uterine lesions served as the control group. The differentially expressed hsa_circ_0003922 was chosen as the research target， and its expression in EEC tissues and the control group was detected using real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR （RT-qPCR）. The relationship between its expression level and clinical pathological features of EEC was analyzed. Furthermore， the miRNAs associated with hsa_circ_0003922 were predicted. The receiver operating characteristic （ROC） curve analysis was employed to evaluate the diagnostic value of hsa_circ_0003922 for EEC. Results The results of high-throughput molecular sequencing showed that there were 293 differentially expressed circRNAs in EEC tissues compared to the control group， including 115 upregulated and 178 downregulated circRNAs. RT-qPCR further revealed that the expression of hsa_circ_0003922 was significantly decreased in EEC tissues compared to the control group （P < 0.05）. The expression level of hsa_circ_0003922 was significantly negatively correlated with FIGO staging and histological grading of EEC （P < 0.05）. The area under the ROC curve （AUC） for hsa_circ_0003922 in distinguishing EEC patients from the control group was 0.7724 （P<0.05）. Conclusion The expression of hsa_circ_0003922 is associated with FIGO staging and histological grading of EEC， indicating its potential as a reference index for auxiliary diagnosis， prognosis evaluation， and as a potential molecular target for adjuvant therapy in EEC.

Key words: endometrioid carcinoma, circular RNAs, biomarkers, expression, diagnosis