Role of ELOVL3 in predicting the prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma

NING Na; Ba Tu; MUNISHA Maimaitili; YUSUFUKADIER Maimaitinijiati; Lu Shuang; Chen Xiong

doi:10.3969/j.jssn.1007-8096.2024.08.011

Abstract：Objective To explore molecular markers to accurately predict the prognosis of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma.Methods The TCGA database was accessed to obtain the mRNA expression data and associated clinical prog-nosis data of hepatocellular carcinoma(LIHC)samples.Additionally,clinicopathological and follow-up data were collected from 91 patients diagnosed with hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC)who underwent hepatectomy at the Xinjiang Uygur Au-tonomous Region People's Hospital between January 1,2017,and January 1,2022.Following a screening of differentially expressed genes(DEGs)using R software,risk genes linked to the survival of HCC patients were further screened using Cox univariate regression analysis and LASSO regression analysis;the expression of ELOVL3 in various liver tissues was analyzed using the ggplot2 analysis package and immunohistochemical staining;Kaplan-Meier survival analysis was real-ized using the survival analysis package.Results Total 752DEGs were obtained,including of 247 upregulated genes and 505 down-regulated genes.Coxunivariate regression analysis was used to identify 175 genes from DEGs that were signifi-cantly associated with survival of HCC patients,and 14 risk genes that were closely related to the survival of HCC patients were further selected by LASSO regression analysis.The ggplot2 tool in R provided analysis findings that demonstrated ELOVL3 expression levels in tumor tissues were significantly greater than those in normal tissues(P＜0.001)and also higher than those in matching para-tumor tissues(P＜0.001).Immunohistochemical staining results revealed that 32 pa-tients(35.2％)did not have positive ELOVL3 results,while 59 patients(64.8％)did.They were negative in matched ad-jacent tissues.According to survival analysis,patients who tested positive for ELOVL3 had a significantly lower 5-year survival rate(r=0.028)than patients who tested negative for ELOVL3;additionally,patients who expressed high levels of ELOVL3 had a lower overall survival rate than those who expressed low levels of the protein,and their prognosis worsened with higher expression levels(HR=1.7,P=0.008).Conclusion It is anticipated that ELOVL3 will serve as a unique molecular marker for predicting the outcome of HCC.