Circular RNAs (
circRNAs) are a naturally occurring family of
non-coding RNA that may regulate gene expression in mammals.
circRNAs are more stable than messenger RNAs due to their resistance to
RNA exonuclease. A growing body of evidence has shown that the expression of
circRNAs is regulated during development in a tissue-specific manner.
CircRNAs have been implicated in a number of
cancers; however, their role in
endometrial cancer (EC) is completely unknown. Here, we report the circular transcriptome specific for EC as determined by
RNA sequencing. We found that the overall abundance of
circRNAs is lower in EC than in normal endometrium. Further, there are numerous 'hotspot' genes from which
circRNAs are transcribed that may account for alterations in
circRNA expression between the normal and malignant endometrium. Most importantly, we have also identified
circRNAs that are differentially expressed between malignant and normal endometrial tissue. The functional significance of these
circRNAs in
cancer remains to be determined, but they may serve as potential
biomarkers for the diagnosis of EC or monitoring of EC progression.