Identification of genes in hepatocellular carcinoma induced by non-alcoholic fatty liver disease

BACKGROUND Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the leading cause of mortality worldwide. In recent years, the incidence of HCC induced by NAFLD is growing rapidly. OBJECTIVE To screen for new pathogenic genes and related pathways both in NAFLD and HCC, and to explore the pathogenesis of progression from NAFLD to HCC. METHODS Gene expression microarrays (GSE74656, GSE62232) were used for identifying differentially expressed genes (DEGs). Functional enrichment and pathway enrichment analyses indicated that these DEGs were related to cell cycle and extracellular exosome, which were closely related to NAFLD and HCC development. We then used the Search Tool for the Retrieval of Interacting Genes (STRING) to establish the protein-protein interaction (PPI) network and visualized them in Cytoscape. And the overall survival (OS) analysis and gene expression validation in TCGA of hub genes was performed. RESULTS Seven hub genes, including CDK1, HSP90AA1, MAD2L1, PRKCD, ITGB3BP, CEP192, and RHOB were identified. Finally, we verified the expression level of ITGB3BP and CEP192 by quantitative real-time PCR in vitro. CONCLUSIONS The present study implied possible DEGs, especially the new gene CEP192, in the progression of NAFLD developing to HCC. Further rigorous experiments are required to verify the above results.