Division of Molecular Biology, Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia.
Institute of Clinical Pathology and Cytology, Merkur University Hospital, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia.
Int J Mol Sci. 2024 Sep 30;25(19):10558. doi: 10.3390/ijms251910558.
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most prevalent primary liver cancer, ranking as the sixth most common cancer worldwide and the fourth leading cause of cancer-related deaths. Most HCC cases originate from cirrhotic livers, typically due to chronic liver diseases, such as hepatitis B (HBV) and hepatitis C (HCV) infections, and alcoholism. HCC cells often harbor numerous somatic mutations that are implicated in HCC development, but epigenetic factors, such as miRNA interference, can also affect HCC initiation and progress. miRNA-221 has been explored as a factor affecting HCC development in HCC of viral etiology, but little is known about its effects on gene expression in alcohol-associated HCC. This study aimed to explore potentially similar gene expression aberrations underlying viral and alcohol-induced HCC. We analyzed available transcriptome data from non-tumor hepatocytes and viral-induced HCC tissues. The most notable differences in gene expression associated with miRNA-221 between non-tumor hepatocytes and viral-induced HCC involved and genes. To assess these data in alcohol-induced HCC, we examined 111 tissue samples: tumor tissue and cirrhotic tissue samples from 37 HCC patients and 37 samples from non-tumor liver tissue using RT-Q PCR. We found no significant difference in expression, but expression was significantly lower in HCC tissue compared to non-tumor hepatocytes and cirrhotic tissue. Our findings highlight the importance of the gene in HCC development and emphasize the need for diverse approaches in evaluating tumor mechanisms.
肝细胞癌 (HCC) 是最常见的原发性肝癌，是全球第六大常见癌症，也是癌症相关死亡的第四大主要原因。大多数 HCC 病例源自肝硬化肝脏，通常是由于慢性肝脏疾病，如乙型肝炎 (HBV) 和丙型肝炎 (HCV) 感染和酗酒。HCC 细胞通常携带许多与 HCC 发展有关的体细胞突变，但表观遗传因素，如 miRNA 干扰，也会影响 HCC 的发生和进展。miRNA-221 已被探索为影响病毒性病因 HCC 发展的因素，但对其在酒精相关性 HCC 中对基因表达的影响知之甚少。本研究旨在探讨病毒和酒精诱导 HCC 中潜在相似的基因表达异常。我们分析了来自非肿瘤肝细胞和病毒诱导 HCC 组织的可用转录组数据。miRNA-221 在非肿瘤肝细胞和病毒诱导 HCC 之间的基因表达最显著差异涉及 和 基因。为了在酒精诱导的 HCC 中评估这些数据，我们使用 RT-QPCR 检查了 111 个组织样本：来自 37 名 HCC 患者的肿瘤组织和肝硬化组织样本，以及来自 37 名非肿瘤肝脏组织的样本。我们发现 表达没有显著差异，但 HCC 组织中的 表达明显低于非肿瘤肝细胞和肝硬化组织。我们的研究结果强调了 基因在 HCC 发展中的重要性，并强调了在评估肿瘤机制时需要采用多种方法。
