The pathogenesis of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is still unclear, where 
involvement of circRNA is considered for its active role as "miRNA sponge". 
Therefore, we aimed to investigate the circRNA expression pattern in NASH and 
further construct the circRNA-miRNA-mRNA network for in-depth mechanism 
exploration. Briefly, NASH mice model was established by Methionine and choline 
deficiency (MCD) diet feeding. Liver circRNA and mRNA profile was initially 
screened by microarray and ensuing qRT-PCR verification was carried out. The 
overlapped predicted miRNAs as downstream targets of circRNAs and upstream 
regulators of mRNAs were verified by qRT-PCR and final circRNA-miRNA-mRNA 
network was constructed. Gene Ontology (GO) and KEGG pathway analysis were 
further applied to enrich the huge mRNA microarray data. To sum up, there were 
69 up and 63 down regulated circRNAs as well as 2760 up and 2465 down regulated 
mRNAs in NASH group, comparing with control group. Randomly selected 13 of 14 
mRNAs and 2 of 8 circRNAs were successfully verified by qRT-PCR. Through 
predicted overlapped miRNA verification, four circRNA-miRNA-mRNA pathways were 
constructed, including circRNA_002581-miR-122-Slc1a5, circRNA_002581- 
miR-122-Plp2, circRNA_002581-miR-122-Cpeb1 and circRNA_007585-miR-326- UCP2. GO 
and KEGG pathway analysis also enriched specific mRNAs. Therefore, circRNA 
profile may serve as candidate for NASH diagnosis and circRNA-miRNA -mRNA 
pathway may provide novel mechanism for NASH.