Changes in the expression of 17-β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase 13 and mitofusin 2 in liver cancer tissue and a bioinformatics analysis

Objective To investigate the change in the expression of 17-β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase 13( HSD17 B13) and mitofusin2( MFN2) in hepatocellular carcinoma( HCC) tissue and its clinical significance,and to analyze target genes by bioinformatics methods.Methods Fifteen HCC patients who received surgical treatment in Fujian Provincial Hospital from September 2017 to March 2018 were enrolled. HCC and adjacent tissues were collected after surgery. Real-time PCR and Western blot were used to measure the change in the expression of HSD17 B13 and MFN2 in HCC and adjacent tissues,and the clinical significance of such change was analyzed. The single cell sequencing database,the GTEx database,and The Cancer Genome Atlas database were used to analyze the expression of HSD17 B13 and MFN2 in HCC tissue and different stages of HCC,as well as its correlation with overall survival of liver cancer. The correlation between the expression of HSD17 B13 and MFN2 was also analyzed. For normally distributed continuous data,the t test was used for comparison between two groups,and an analysis of variance was used for comparison between multiple groups; for non-normally distributed continuous data,the Mann-Whitney U test was used for comparison between two groups,and the Kruskal-Wallis H test was used for comparison between multiple groups. The log-rank test was used to investigate the influence of variables on survival rate,and the Kaplan-Meier method was used for plotting the survival curve. A Pearson correlation analysis was used to investigate the relationship between the two variables. Results Real-time PCR and Western blot showed that compared with the adjacent tissue,the HCC tissue had significantly downregulated expression of HSD17 B13 and MFN2( PCR: t =-2. 467 and-3. 933,P = 0. 020 and 0. 001; Western blot: t =-5. 357 and-5. 771,P = 0. 006 and0. 026). The bioinformatics analysis showed significantly downregulated expression of HSD17 B13 in HCC tissue( P < 0. 05),and the expression of HSD17 B13 decreased with the increase in the stage of HCC( F = 3. 220,P = 0. 023); low expression of HSD17 B13 was associated with poor survival( risk ratio = 0. 630,P = 0. 011); in HCC tissue,the expression of MFN2 was positively correlated with that of HSD17 B13( r = 0. 190,P < 0. 001). Conclusion There is downregulated expression of MFN2 and HSD17 B13 in liver cancer,and MFN2 and HSD17 B13 may be potential tumor suppressor genes with clinical relevance. They may be involved in biological behaviors in the development and progression of liver cancer and may become useful molecular markers for liver cancer screening,clinical classification,and prognosis evaluation and effective targets for the treatment of liver cancer.