The clinical value of Fibulin-1 for prognosis and its prospective mechanism in intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma

Abstract

Background: Intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC) is the second most common malignancy arising from the liver. Fibulin-1 has been demonstrated to be involved in various cancers, however, its role in ICC remains unclear.

Methods: To study the clinical value and potential molecular mechanism of Fibulin-1 in ICC, immunohistochemistry and bioinformatic analyses were performed using data in the Gene Expression Omnibus Datasets and The Cancer Genome Atlas database.

Results: Fibulin-1 expression was overexpressed in ICC tissues compared with adjacent non-cancerous tissues, and was significantly associated with unfavorable overall survival. Moreover, similar genes were identified by Gene Expression Profiling Interactive Analysis and microarray data set. Next, functional and pathway enrichment analysis demonstrated that Fibulin-1 was overrepresented in the pathways of extracellular matrix organization and angiogenesis, which are associated with tumor progression and potential for metastasis. Gene set enrichment analysis indicated that the gene sets of epithelial mesenchymal transition, TGF-beta signaling pathway and angiogenesis were enriched in tissues with high Fibulin-1 level. Furthermore, Fibulin-1 silencing suppressed the ability of ICC tumor cells to form colonies and siFibulin-1 repressed the endogenous protein level of p-AKT.

Conclusion: Collectively, this study suggests that Fibulin-1 overexpression may play key roles in the carcinogenesis and progression of ICC via regulation of tumor-related pathways.