Candida albicans triggers the expression of inflammatory genes in human umbilical vein endothelial cells

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to investigate the pathogenesis of Candida albicans in human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) and to screen for aberrantly expressed genes during the process of infection. GSE7355 (accession no.) was downloaded from the National Center of Biotechnology Information Gene Expression Omnibus database and used to identify the differentially-expressed genes (DEGs) between the two groups, which included 4 samples from an untreated HUVEC control group, and 4 samples from HUVECs exposed to C. albicans. Subsequently, the gene ontology (GO) function package was used to perform GO and pathway enrichment analysis, prior to the extraction of DEG correlations in the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes. A protein-protein interaction (PPI) network was constructed using the String database. In total, 77 DEGs were identified, including 69 upregulated and 8 downregulated DEGs in the C. albicans-infected HUVEC samples. DEGs were significantly enriched in response to external stimuli and chemokine activity. In addition, DEG FBJ murine osteosarcoma viral oncogene homolog (FOS) and interleukin (IL)-6 were significantly enriched in the Toll-like receptor signaling pathway. Nuclear factor κ light polypeptide gene enhancer in B cells 2 (NFKB2) was significantly enriched in the mitogen-activated protein kinase signaling pathway. In the interaction network of DEGs, according data included in the KEGG database, FOS and NFKB2 had higher connectivity degrees. Notably, FOS, IL-6 and intercellular adhesion molecule 1 were demonstrated to have higher connectivity degrees in the PPI network. FOS, IL-6 and NFKB2 may be important genes for C. albicans infection in HUVECs, and these genes may act as therapeutic targets to treat patients infected with C. albicans.