High expression of PPM1G is associated with the progression and poor prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma.

BACKGROUND: PPM1G, a member of the serine/threonine protease family, dephosphorylates various proteins and may be involved in cancer development. The role and mechanism of PPM1G in HCC still needs to be verified. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to explore the role of PPM1G in the occurrence, development and prognosis of HCC. METHODS: Using bioinformatics (UALCAN, cBioPortal, Linkedomics, STRING and GSEA) to analyze the expression of PPM1G mRNA in HCC, its clinical relevance and possible involved signaling pathways. The expression of PPM1G protein was determined by immunohistochemistry in 311 cases of HCC to evaluate the association between PPM1G and clinical features and prognosis. RESULTS: The expression of PPM1G was significantly upregulated in HCC (P< 0.001), correlated with the metastasis (P= 0.020), pathological grade of HCC (P= 0.032), microvascular invasion (P= 0.040), and HBV infection (P= 0.041). Cox multivariate regression showed high expression of PPM1G was an independent prognostic factor for HCC. Its role in HCC may relate to methylation and frequency mutation. Furthermore, the database showed PPM1G is involved in the signal pathway such as cell cycle, WNT pathway, and mTOR pathway in HCC. CONCLUSION: PPM1G showed an essential function involving in tumor-related pathways in HCC, providing a biological basis for targeted treatment of HCC clinically.

High Expression of SLC41A3 Correlates with Poor Prognosis in Hepatocellular Carcinoma.

PURPOSE: SLC41A3 is a member of the solute carrier family 41 (SLC41) and is involved in many cellular processes as a magnesium ion transporter. Although it plays an important role in cancer formation and development, the correlation between the expression of SLC41A3 and the occurrence and prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains unclear. Therefore, this study was focused on the evaluation of the relationship between SLC41A3 and the development and prognosis of HCC. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Firstly, we collected the mRNA expression of SLC41A3 in HCC through the platform of Oncomine. Then, the subgroups of HCC were performed by the UALCAN website and the prognosis of HCC was analyzed by Kaplan-Meier Plotter database. Subsequently, immunohistochemistry (IHC) method was used to detect SLC41A3 expression in 323 clinically confirmed HCC samples and 184 non-cancerous liver tissues. Finally, function enrichment analysis was done using the LinkInterpreter module in LinkedOmics, and gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) was performed using TCGA data set. RESULTS: The Oncomine database and immunohistochemical (IHC) showed higher SLC41A3 expression in HCC tissue compared to normal tissue. The expression of SLC41A3 was significantly correlated with tumor metastasis, Edmondson grade, microvascular invasion, and AFP level. Kaplan-Meier and Cox regression analyses verified that high SLC41A3 expression is a significant prognostic factor for reduced overall survival in HCC patients. CONCLUSION: Our results demonstrated that high expression of SLC41A3 was the predictor of poor prognosis in HCC patients, suggesting that this protein may be a potential target for HCC therapy.

Expression of VAT1 in hepatocellular carcinoma and its clinical significance.

The objective of this study was to investigate the expression of vesicular amine transporter 1 (VAT1) in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and its prognostic value and to analyze the relationship between VAT1 expression and clinicopathological features of HCC. First, several public databases, including Ualcan, GEPIA, and Oncomine, were used to analyze the expression of VAT1 in HCC and normal liver tissue. Next, 330 HCC and 190 normal liver samples were stained by immunohistochemistry and scored. Finally, we evaluated the clinical significance of VAT1 as a prognostic factor according to the clinicopathological characteristics. We observed that the expression level of VAT1 in HCC samples was significantly higher than that in normal liver tissues, and the high expression of VAT1 protein in HCC was significantly correlated with patient age, tumor size, number of tumors, and vascular metastasis (p<0.05). The average survival time of HCC patients with high expression of VAT1 was significantly lower than that of patients with low expression of VAT1. Further analysis demonstrated that VAT1 expression was significantly correlated with the length of overall survival in HCC patients. In conclusion, VAT1 may have an essential function in the progression of HCC, and the level of its expression may effectively predict the invasion and prognosis of HCC. Moreover, the combination of information contained in public databases and the results of the analysis of clinical samples can help us to understand better the mechanism of action of molecular oncogenes in HCC.