DNA and RNA Sequencing Recapitulated Aberrant Tumor Metabolism in Liver Cancer Cell Lines

J Hepatocell Carcinoma. 2021 Jul 27:8:823-836. doi: 10.2147/JHC.S318724. eCollection 2021.

Abstract

Aim: Metabolic reprogramming has recently attracted extensive attention for understanding cancer development. We aimed to demonstrate a genomic and transcriptomic landscape of metabolic reprogramming underlying liver cancer cell lines.

Methods: We investigated metabolic aberrant at both the transcriptome and genome levels using transcriptome and whole-exome sequencing data from 12 human liver cancer cell lines (hLCCLs) and one normal liver cell line.

Results: Three subgroups of hLCCLs characterized from transcriptome sequencing data exhibit significantly different aberrations in various metabolic processes, including amino acid, lipid, energy, and carbohydrate metabolism. Furthermore, whole-exome sequencing revealed distinct mutational signatures among different subgroups of hLCCLs and identified a total of 19 known driver genes implicated in metabolism.

Conclusion: Our findings highlighted differential metabolic mechanisms in the development of liver cancer and provided a resource for further investigating its metabolic mechanisms.

Keywords: human liver cancer cell lines (hLCCLs); sequencing; transcriptome; tumor metabolism; whole-exome.

Grants and funding

This work was funded by the program of Artificial Intelligence in Medicine of CQ CSTC (ZHYX2019004, KD).