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Research Paper
Identification of Candidate Biomarkers for Hepatocellular Carcinoma Through Pre-Cancerous Expression Analysis in an HBx Transgenic Mouse
Qiang Sun, Yingai Zhang, Fang Liu, Xiaohang Zhao and Xiao Yang
volume 6 | issue 10
October 2007Pages: 1532 - 1538
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The aim of this study is to identify candidate biomarkers for the detection of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) through pre-cancerous gene expression analysis in an HBx transgenic mouse model. The gene expression profiles of liver and tumor tissues from 6, 12 and 18 month-old HBx transgenic and littermate control mice were monitored using DNA oligo microarrays. Data analysis revealed changes in 684 genes in the tumor tissues from HBx transgenic mice. Based on their pre-cancerous expression profiles, two separate gene groups, corresponding to HCC specific and non-specific groups respectively, were identified. Gene ontology analysis identified 47 genes encoding secretory or trans-membrane proteins among 155 up regulated genes in the HCC-specific group. Among these, 4 genes encoding TFF3, IGF2, LPL and SPP1 were found to be promising biomarker candidates for the detection of HCC as compared with AFP. This work describes a new way to identify novel biomarker candidates for HCC diagnosis.