biostudies-literatureUnknown13Zhou TNatural Science Foundation of Shandong ProvinceNational Natural Science Foundation of ChinaAlcohol-induced osteonecrosis of the femoral head (AIONFH) is a complicated refractory bone disease seen in the clinic. The pathogenesis of AIONFH is still controversial. Extrachromosomal circular DNA (eccDNA) elements have been indicated ubiquitously exist in eukaryotic genomes. However, the characteristics and biological functions of eccDNAs remain unclear in AIONFH. In this study, eccDNAs from AIONFH samples (<i>n</i> = 7) and fracture of femoral neck samples as a control (<i>n</i> = 7) were purified by removing linear DNA and rolling circle amplification. High-throughput sequencing and bioinformatics analysis were performed to study the characterization and biofunction of eccDNAs. We identified more than 600,000 unique eccDNAs. The number of detected eccDNAs in AIONFH was less than thaFrontiers in genetics918379https://www.ebi.ac.uk/biostudies/studies/S-EPMC9561878biostudies-literatureIdentification and characterization of extrachromosomal circular DNA in alcohol induced osteonecrosis of femoral head.PMC9561878Li XMa SZhou TKuang MGuo DWang HZhao YfalseIdentification and characterization of extrachromosomal circular DNA in alcohol induced osteonecrosis of femoral head.Alcohol-induced osteonecrosis of the femoral head (AIONFH) is a complicated refractory bone disease seen in the clinic. The pathogenesis of AIONFH is still controversial. Extrachromosomal circular DNA (eccDNA) elements have been indicated ubiquitously exist in eukaryotic genomes. However, the characteristics and biological functions of eccDNAs remain unclear in AIONFH. In this study, eccDNAs from AIONFH samples (<i>n</i> = 7) and fracture of femoral neck samples as a control (<i>n</i> = 7) were purified by removing linear DNA and rolling circle amplification. High-throughput sequencing and bioinformatics analysis were performed to study the characterization and biofunction of eccDNAs. We identified more than 600,000 unique eccDNAs. The number of detected eccDNAs in AIONFH was less than tha2022-01-01T00:00:00Z20222025-04-04T09:29:56.009Z2025-04-04T09:29:56.009ZS-EPMC95618783624664210.3389/fgene.2022.918379