Fig. 1.

CircRNA expression profiles. (a) Cluster heat map showing 88 differentially expressed circRNAs with more than 2-fold change in expression and 15 candidate circRNAs in the discovery set (7 MDD patients and 7 HCs). Red represents high relative expression, green represents low relative expression. (b) Flowchart illustrating the 3-stage approach involving 2 independent cohorts for discovery and validation. (c) – (f) RT-qPCR was performed to verify the expression of the 15 candidate circRNAs in 7 MDD patients and 7 HCs. Each sample was tested in triplicate. Independent-samples t-test was used for data analysis and all data represents means ± standard deviation. circRNA, circular RNA; MDD, major depressive disorder; HC, healthy control; RT-qPCR, real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction.