Abstract: Objective To investigate the relationship between significant decreased expression of circRNAs and its predicted target genes in erythrocyte storage lesion. Methods Whole blood collected from healthy donors is separated to suspended red blood cells after leukocyte filtration. The samples were divided into fresh groups（0 day）and storage groups（4℃ for 20 days）. The two groups of specimens were tested by high-throughput sequencing,and 10 down-regulated circRNAs were selected for PCR verification. CircBase and mirTarBase were used to database annotation and target gene prediction,and the association analysis of mRNAs which could be effected by miRNAs were also be done. Storage lesion-related circRNAs could be screened out through methods above. Results Compared to the fresh groups,the expression of hsa_circ_0005413,hsa_circ_0008937,hsa_circ_0040340,hsa_circ_0003126,hsa_circ_0007995,hsa_circ_0023937,
novel_circ_0000402,hsa_circ_0028281 significantly decreased in storage groups（P<0.05）,while the expression of hsa-miR-7160-5p,hsa-miR-122-5p and hsa-miR-4534 significantly increased（P<0.05）and the expression of CASP8,CDK4,and TMOD3 decreased significantly（P<0.05）. Bioinformatics analysis shows that these circRNA target genes are involved in apoptosis and anti-apoptosis,erythrocyte membrane stability,oxidative damage,iron metabolism and other physiological processes. Conclusion We constructed several differentially expressed circRNA-miRNA-mRNA triple network,and found that hsa_circ_0005413-hsa-miR-7160-5p-CASP8,hsa_circ_0040340-hsa-miR-122-5p-CDK4,hsa_circ_0007995-hsa-miR-4534-TMOD3 axis might participate in the biological process of erythrocyte storage lesion.

Key words: RBC storage lesion, CircRNA, miRNA, Apoptosis, CASP8