Hypoxia leads to endothelial dysfunction and increased blood-brain barrier (BBB) permeability, promoting the incidence of diseases such as stroke and acute high-altitude illness. Brain microvascular endothelial cells (BMECs) are important structural and functional components of the BBB; however, the molecular changes that occur in BMECs during hypoxia remain unknown. We reported the molecular and functional changes in BMECs under hypoxia through whole-transcriptome sequencing, small RNA microarray, TMT quantitative proteomic, and untargeted metabolomic analyses. We found that hypoxia affected pathways such as ncRNA processing, the HIF-1 signaling pathway, the cell cycle, DNA replication, glucose metabolism, protein synthesis, and inflammation pathways. ncRNA processing was significantly downregulated. However, the levels of some miRNAs, tRNAs, tsRNAs, snoRNAs, lncRNAs, and circRNAs were significantly upregulated under hypoxia. These results suggest that ncRNAs may play an important role in oxidative stress and cellular adaptation to hypoxia, helping us understand the pathological process of BBB injury and providing potential targets for the treatment of BBB-related cerebrovascular diseases.
Keywords: blood–brain barrier; brain microvascular endothelial cells; hypoxia; multiomics; ncRNA; oxidative stress.