Identification of differentially-expressed circRNAs associated with AS
The edgeR tool was next used to identify DECs by comparing the relative circRNA expression levels in the AS and CN groups with the following threshold criteria: FC ≥ 2 or ≤ 0.5, P -value < 0.05. Volcano plots (Fig. 2A), scatter plots (Fig. 2B), and hierarchical clustering analyses (Fig. 2C) were then used to highlight the patterns of DEC expression in these two groups. By this method, 131 DECs were identified, including 89 up-regulated and 42 down-regulated DECs, in AS and control groups. The top 10 up-and down-regulated DECs in the AS group were compiled in Table 3.