Fig. 1: Identification of differentially circular RNAs in ESCC.

A Clustered heat map of the differentially expressed circRNAs in three pairs of human ESCC cancerous tissues and adjacent normal tissues (GSE131969). circRNAs with increased (yellow) or decreased (blue) expression are presented. B Volcano plots comparing the expression of circRNAs in ESCC cancerous tissues with adjacent normal tissues. The color indicated dots represent the circRNAs upregulated (red dots) and downregulated (green dots) by 1.5-fold and p values < 0.05. C The genomic loci of the PDE3B gene and circPDE3B. D The back-splice junction site of circPDE3B was validated by Sanger sequencing. E RT-PCR assay with divergent or convergent primers indicated the existence of circPDE3B in ESCC tissue. GAPDH was used as a negative control. F qRT-PCR analysis of PDE3B mRNA and circPDE3B after treatment with RNase R in EC9706 cells. G qRT-PCR analysis of PDE3B mRNA and circPDE3B in EC9706 cells after treatment with Actinomycin D. H Expression levels of circPDE3B in 92 paired ESCC specimens and the corresponding paired normal adjacent tissues. I Expression levels of circPDE3B determined by qRT-PCR in mammary normal cell lines and ESCC cell lines. J Representative images and analysis results of circPDE3B expression in ESCC tissues were detected by ISH assays. Scale bar, 200 μm. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001.