Fig. 1.

LncRNA UCA1 expression decreased in postnatal hearts. (A) The analysis of normalized expression levels in fetal and adult hearts. (B) Correlation analysis between fetal and adult hearts. (C) Differential gene expression analysis showing up- and down-regulated mRNAs and LncRNAs between fetal and adult hearts. A |log2FC|>1 and a p value < 0.05 were considered to be statistically significant. (D) GO enrichment analysis of up- and down-regulated mRNAs. The x-axis indicated gene counts and the y-axis specified GO terms. (E) GSEA of cell cycle DNA replication, positive regulation of cell cycle, and positive regulation of cytokinesis in fetal hearts. (F) Single-sample GSEA score of cell cycle DNA replication, positive regulation of cell cycle, and positive regulation of cytokinesis in fetal and adult hearts. (G) Venn diagram analysis showed the number of lncRNAs that positively correlated with the cell cycle and were upregulated in fetal hearts. (H) Heatmap displaying the expression of 30 shared lncRNAs in fetal and adult hearts. (I) Correlation between single sample GSEA score of the cell cycle and lncUCA1 expression in fetal and adult hearts. (J) Co-expression network analysis of lncUCA1 and cell cycle-related genes. Orange represents genes most closely related to lncUCA1. (K) QRT-PCR analysis of lncUCA1 expression in SD rat hearts at different ages (n = 5). (L) QRT-PCR analysis of lncUCA1 expression in different organs of 1-day-old SD rats (n = 5). (M) QRT-PCR analysis of lncUCA1 expression in cardiomyocytes (CMs), cardiac fibroblasts (CFs), and endothelial cells (ECs) (n = 5). (N) The nuclear and cytoplasmic distribution of lncUCA1 in P1 SD rat CMs (n = 5). (O) Representative image of RNA FISH to confirm lncUCA1 location in P1 CMs isolated from SD rats. Statistical significance was calculated using one-way ANOVA analysis in K-M and Student's t-test in N. Data are represented as means ± SD. *P < 0.05. Bar = 20 μm.