Cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, which mainly consist of atherosclerosis (AS), are major causes of death. A great deal of research has been carried out to clarify the molecular mechanisms of AS. However, the etiology of AS remains poorly understood. To screen the potential genes of AS occurrence and development, GSE43292 and GSE57691 were obtained from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database in this study for bioinformatic analysis. First, GEO2R was used to identify differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and the functional annotation of DEGs was performed by gene ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analysis. The Search Tool for the Retrieval of Interacting Genes (STRING) tool was used to construct the protein–protein interaction network and the most important modules and core genes were mined. The results show that a total of 211 DEGs are identified. The functional changes of DEGs are mainly associated with the cellular process, catalytic activity, and protein binding. Eighteen genes were identified as core genes. Bioinformatic analysis showed that the core genes are mainly enriched in numerous processes related to actin. In conclusion, the DEGs and hub genes identified in this study may help us understand the potential etiology of the occurrence and development of AS.

中文翻译：

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通过生物信息学分析鉴定潜在的动脉粥样硬化枢纽基因

主要由动脉粥样硬化（AS）组成的心脑血管疾病是主要的死亡原因。已经进行了大量研究以阐明 AS 的分子机制。然而，AS 的病因仍然知之甚少。为筛选AS发生发展的潜在基因，本研究从基因表达综合（GEO）数据库中获取GSE43292和GSE57691进行生物信息学分析。首先，GEO2R用于鉴定差异表达基因（DEGs），并通过基因本体论（GO）和京都基因与基因组百科全书（KEGG）分析对DEGs进行功能注释。用于检索相互作用基因的搜索工具（STRING）工具用于构建蛋白质 - 蛋白质相互作用网络，并挖掘最重要的模块和核心基因。结果表明，总共鉴定了211个DEG。DEGs 的功能变化主要与细胞过程、催化活性和蛋白质结合有关。十八个基因被鉴定为核心基因。生物信息学分析表明，核心基因主要富集在众多与肌动蛋白相关的过程中。总之，本研究鉴定的DEGs和hub基因可能有助于我们了解AS发生发展的潜在病因。