Editor: Lawrence Lash Keywords: Cigarette smoke Epithelial-mesenchymal transition Prostate Exosomes Circ_0001359 Collagen deposition

Cigarettes consumption is continued to be popular. We found that cigarette smoke (CS) exposure promoted prostatic fibrosis. In this study, human prostate epithelial RWPE-1 cells were co-cultured with exosomes derived from CS exposed-WPMY-1 cells (CS-WPMY-1-exo). The collagen deposition, primary ciliogenesis, epithelialmesenchymal transition (EMT) and transforming growth factor (TGF)-beta 1 level of RWPE-1 were evaluated. The circRNAs profiles of WPMY-1-exo were explored by high-throughput RNA sequencing. It was found that CSWPMY-1-exo significantly promoted RWPE-1 collagen deposition, EMT and primary ciliogenesis. There were 17 differentially expressed (DE) circRNAs (including circ_0001359) between CS-WPMY-1-exo and the negative control. Functional enrichment analyses showed that the DE circRNAs played important roles in ciliary basal body, spindle microtubule and TGF-beta signaling pathway. Circ_0001359 siRNA attenuated CS-WPMY-1 induced RWPE-1 cells collagen deposition, EMT and primary ciliogenesis, as well as inhibited the level of TGF-beta 1. The whole results showed that circ_0001359 derived from CS-WPMY-1-exo contributed to prostatic fibrosis via stimulating epithelial cells phenotypes changes and collagen deposition.