Bioinformatics analysis explores key pathways and hub genes in central precocious puberty.

OBJECTIVES

Central precocious puberty (CPP) is one of the common endocrine diseases in pediatrics. However, the molecular mechanisms regulating development of CPP have remained unclear. The purpose of this study was to discover the key pathways and hub genes related to CPP.

METHODS

We analyzed two public datasets (GSE7142 and GSE8310) to identify differentially expressed genes in the progression of CPP. Then, we screened out overlapping differential genes from these two datasets and performed a series of bioinformatics analyses to explore promising targets and molecule mechanism of CPP.

RESULTS

We identified 30 down-regulated overlapping DEGs between GSE7142 (CPP/no CPP) and GSE8130 (EP/JUV) datasets and 17 down-regulated overlapping DEGs between GSE7142 (CPP/no CPP) and GSE8130 (LP/JUV) datasets. KEGG signaling pathway shows that calcium signaling pathway is suppressed continuously in early and late pubertal of CPP patients. MAPK signaling pathway also plays an important role in the occurrence and development of CPP. Eventually, we screened out 2 hub genes (FGFR2 and FLT1) highly related to CPP, which may provide a new directions for the diagnosis and treatment of CPP.

CONCLUSIONS

While further validation is needed, we provide useful and novel information to explore potential signaling pathways and candidate genes for CPP diagnosis and treatment options.