Exaggerated Autophagy in Stanford Type A Aortic Dissection: A Transcriptome Pilot Analysis of Human Ascending Aortic Tissues

Zhou, Zeyi; Liu, Yan; Zhu, Xiyu; Tang, Xinlong; Wang, Yali; Wang, Junxia; Xu, Can; Wang, Dongjin; Du, Jie; Zhou, Qing

Stanford type A aortic dissection (TAAD) is one of the most dangerous diseases of acute aortic syndrome. Molecular pathological studies on TAAD can aid in understanding the disease comprehensively and can provide insights into new diagnostic markers and potential therapeutic targets. In this study, we defined the molecular pathology of TAAD by performing transcriptome sequencing of human ascending aortic tissues. Pathway analysis revealed that activated inflammation, cell death and smooth muscle cell degeneration are the main pathological changes in aortic dissection. However, autophagy is considered to be one of the most important biological processes, regulating inflammatory reactions and degenerative changes. Therefore, we focused on the pathological role of autophagy in aortic dissection and identified 10 autophagy-regulated hub genes, which are all upregulated in TAAD. These results indicate that exaggerated autophagy participates in the pathological process of aortic dissection and may provide new insight for further basic research on TAAD.