Bioengineering has demonstrated the potential of utilising mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), growth factors, and mechanical stimuli to treat cartilage defects. However, the underlying genes and pathways are largely unclear. This is the first study on screening and identifying the hub genes involved in mechanically enhanced chondrogenesis and their potential molecular mechanisms. The datasets were downloaded from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database and contain six transforming growth factor-beta-3 (TGF-β3) induced bovine bone marrow-derived MSCs specimens and six TGF-β3/dynamic-compression-induced specimens at day 42. Screening differentially expressed genes (DEGs) was performed and then analysed via bioinformatics methods. The Database for Annotation, Visualisation, and Integrated Discovery (DAVID) online analysis was utilised to obtain the Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopaedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment. The protein-protein interaction (PPI) network of the DEGs was constructed based on data from the STRING database and visualised through the Cytoscape software. The functional modules were extracted from the PPI network for further analysis. The top 10 hub genes ranked by their connection degrees were IL6, UBE2C, TOP2A, MCM4, PLK2, SMC2, BMP2, LMO7, TRIM36, and MAPK8. Multiple signalling pathways (including the PI3K-Akt signalling pathway, the toll-like receptor signalling pathway, the TNF signalling pathway, and the MAPK pathway) may impact the sensation, transduction, and reaction of external mechanical stimuli. This study provides a theoretical finding showing that gene UBE2C, IL6, and MAPK8, and multiple signalling pathways may play pivotal roles in dynamic compression-enhanced chondrogenesis.

中文翻译：

---

长期动态压缩增强TGF-β3诱导牛干细胞软骨形成的基因表达分析

生物工程学已经证明了利用间充质干细胞（MSCs），生长因子和机械刺激治疗软骨缺损的潜力。但是，基本的基因和途径尚不清楚。这是首次筛选和鉴定参与机械增强软骨形成的轮毂基因及其潜在分子机制的研究。数据集从“基因表达综合”（GEO）数据库下载，并且每天包含六个转化生长因子-β-3（TGF-β3）诱导的牛骨髓来源的MSCs标本和六个TGF-β3/动态压缩诱导的标本42.进行了差异表达基因的筛选，然后通过生物信息学方法进行了分析。用于注释，可视化的数据库 并利用综合发现（DAVID）在线分析获得了基因本体论（GO）和《京都议定书》的基因与基因组百科全书（KEGG）途径富集。DEG的蛋白质相互作用（PPI）网络是根据来自STRING数据库的数据构建的，并通过Cytoscape软件可视化。从PPI网络中提取了功能模块，以进行进一步分析。按它们的连接度排名的前十位中枢基因是IL6，UBE2C，TOP2A，MCM4，PLK2，SMC2，BMP2，LMO7，TRIM36和MAPK8。多种信号通路（包括PI3K-Akt信号通路，toll​​样受体信号通路，TNF信号通路和MAPK通路）可能会影响外部机械刺激的感觉，传导和反应。这项研究提供了理论上的发现，表明该基因UBE2C，IL6，