Background  Chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps (CRSwNP) is a common chronic inflammatory disease with complicated pathogenesis and high postoperative recurrence rate, and the pathogenesis has not yet been fully understood. Objective To analyze the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and their biological function in the nasal polyps from patients with CRSwNP based on bioinformatics.

  Methods  In this study, we selected the GSE136825 in the GEO database and used the RNA-seq data from the 42 nasal polyps of CRSwNP patients and 28 nasal mucosa from healthy control subjects. R software and Deseq2 package were used to analyze the DEGs. Gene ontology (GO) enrichment analysis and KEGG pathway enrichment analysis were performed on the DEGs using the Metacore database. Protein-protein interaction networks (PPI) and the hub genes were constructed by Cytoscape software.

  Results  A total of 777 DEGs were screened from the transcriptomic data of nasal polyps and normal mucosal tissues (527 genes up-regulated and 250 genes down-regulated). GO and KEGG pathway enrichment analysis of differential genes showed that inflammatory response, immunoreceptor activity, granulocyte chemotaxis, metallopeptidase activity and other biological functions were significantly correlated between nasal polyp tissues and normal mucosal tissues. Furthermore, the core genes related to CRSwNP were SCG2, IGFBP3, CA4, C3, SPP1, CP, CHRDL1, and BPIFB2. Among the above core genes, SCG2, IGFBP3, CA4, C3, SPP1 and CP were up-regulated in nasal polyp tissues, while CHRDL1 and BPIFB2 were down-regulated.

  Conclusion  This study is helpful to enhance the understanding of the molecular mechanism of CRSwNP and provide a crucial basis for its clinical and mechanism research.