Identification of NFASC and CHL1 as Two Novel Hub Genes in Endometriosis Using Integrated Bioinformatic Analysis and Experimental Verification.

{"sci_version": "1.2", "schema": "https://corpus.bntrg.co.uk/sci/1.0/sci.schema.json", "id": "pmid:35496348", "kind": "science-record", "revision": 3, "content_hash": "sha256:23788987debedce62b0ea7db5b82248f0c4dac9b898b71fc4477736ea3175a77", "created_at": "2026-11-01T18:14:22Z", "updated_at": "2026-11-01T21:27:45Z", "generator": {"name": "corpus-assay-engine", "run_id": "reading-sci-2026-11-01"}, "paper": {"state": "complete", "title": "Identification of NFASC and CHL1 as Two Novel Hub Genes in Endometriosis Using Integrated Bioinformatic Analysis and Experimental Verification.", "doi": "10.2147/PGPM.S354957", "pmid": "35496348", "authors": ["Pei Chen", "Mengyun Yao", "Tao Fang", "Chaoshuang Ye", "Yongjiang Du", "Yang Jin", "Ruijin Wu"], "journal": "Pharmacogenomics and personalized medicine", "year": 2022, "abstract": "Background: Endometriosis (EMS) is a common and highly recurrent gynecological disease characterized by chronic pain and infertility. There are no definitive therapies for endometriosis since the pathogenesis remains undetermined. This study aimed to identify EMS-related functional modules and hub genes by integrated bioinformatics analysis.\nMethods: Three endometriosis expression profiling series (GSE25628, GSE23339, and GSE7305) were obtained from Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO). The EMS-related module was constructed by weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA), followed by Gene Ontology (GO) enrichment analyses. Cytohubba and the MCODE plug-ins of Cytoscape were used to screen out the hub genes, which were verified via receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves. Immunohistochemistry was performed to verify the protein expression of the hub genes in ectopic endometrial tissues. Moreover, CIBERSORT was used to analyze the relationship between the abundance of immune cells infiltration and the expression of hub genes.\nResults: Among the 18 modules obtained, the darkmagenta module was identified as the EMS-related module, genes of which were significantly enriched to terms referring to cell migration and neurogenesis. NFASC and CHL1 were screened out and prioritized as hub genes through Cytoscape and confirmed to be differentially upregulated in ectopic endometrial samples. Finally, the expression of hub genes was related to the abundance of immune cells infiltration. The higher expression of NFASC or CHL1 correlated with increased M2 macrophages and decreased natural killer (NK) cells in ectopic lesions.\nConclusion: This study provided new insights into the molecular factors underlying the pathogenesis of endometriosis and provided a theoretical basis for the potential that the two hub genes, NFASC and CHL1, might be novel biomarkers and therapeutic targets in the future.", "claims": [{"id": "claim-method", "statement": "The EMS-related module was constructed by weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA), followed by Gene Ontology (GO) enrichment analyses.", "kind": "methodological", "target": null, "evidence": [{"asset": "source:pmid:35496348", "locator": "sections[0] \"Abstract\" paragraph 2", "quote": "The EMS-related module was constructed by weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA), followed by Gene Ontology (GO) enrichment analyses."}], "state": "complete"}, {"id": "claim-data-access", "statement": "The endometriosis datasets of expression profiling including GSE25628, GSE23339 and GSE7305 were downloaded from the GEO database (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo/).", "kind": "methodological", "target": null, "evidence": [{"asset": "source:pmid:35496348", "locator": "sections[22] \"Data Sharing Statement\" paragraph 2", "quote": "The endometriosis datasets of expression profiling including GSE25628, GSE23339 and GSE7305 were downloaded from the GEO database (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo/)."}], "state": "complete"}, {"id": "claim-target-result", "statement": "Among the 18 modules obtained, the darkmagenta module was identified as the EMS-related module, genes of which were significantly enriched to terms referring to cell migration and neurogenesis.", "kind": "qualitative", "target": null, "evidence": [{"asset": "source:pmid:35496348", "locator": "sections[0] \"Abstract\" paragraph 3", "quote": "Among the 18 modules obtained, the darkmagenta module was identified as the EMS-related module, genes of which were significantly enriched to terms referring to cell migration and neurogenesis."}], "state": "complete"}], "gaps": []}, "experiment": {"state": "complete", "objective": "Among the 18 modules obtained, the darkmagenta module was identified as the EMS-related module, genes of which were significantly enriched to terms referring to cell migration and neurogenesis.", "steps": [{"id": "read_published_estimate", "order": 1, "name": "Read the published estimate from the source", "kind": "other", "state": "complete", "blocked_on": null, "description": "The claim, method and evidence span published with the source article.", "duration_hours": null, "parameters": {}, "inputs": ["source:pmid:35496348"], "outputs": ["the published estimate and its evidence"], "instruments": [], "reagents": []}, {"id": "obtain_source_data", "order": 2, "name": "Obtain the source data from the named repository", "kind": "data-preparation", "state": "complete", "blocked_on": null, "description": "The GEO series accession resolves and its sample accessions are listed. 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