RESUMEN
Objective To screen key genes and pathways of acute on-chronic liver failure(ACLF)by multiple bioinformatics,and to provide theoretical basis for molecular biology studies and biomarker screening of ACLF.Methods ACLF transcriptome mRNA mi-croarray data set was downloaded from Gene Expression Omnibus(GEO),and limma package in R software was used to analyze the difference expression genes.The gene ontology(GO)function enrichment and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes(KEGG)anal-ysis were analyzed differential genes through David database.Protein-protein interaction(PPI)network was analyzed using STRING da-tabase,the key differential genes were screened by Cytoscape software.Results A total of 329differentially expressed genes were screened,including 185 up-regulated genes and 144 down-regulated genes.GO functional enrichment analysis obtained 385 items,in-cluding immune receptor activity,cytokine receptor activity,T cell receptor binding and other biological functions(P＜0.05).KEGG pathway enrichment analysis screened 36signaling pathways,among which the immune and inflammatory pathways including Th1 and Th2 cell differentiation,Th17 cell differentiation pathway,T cell receptor signaling pathway,primary immune deficiency,NF-κB signaling pathway and TNF signaling pathway.Among these key genes,CD3G,CD3D,IL7R,LCK,IL1R2,IL18R1,IL1R1 and MAPK14 related to ACLF were further obtained,which may become potential biomarkers and therapeutic targets of ACLF.Conclusion This study demon-strates that CD3G,CD3D,IL7R,LCK,IL1R2,IL18R1,IL1R1 and MAPK14may become the core genes related to the occurrence and development of ACLF and new therapeutic targets in the future.