Transcriptome analysis of liver tumors derived from human induced liver cancer-forming cells (iLCCs)

We found that a set of six transcription factors, FOXA3, HNF1A, HNF1B, LIN28B, L-MYC, and KLF5, can induce direct conversion of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) into liver cancer-forming cells (LCCs). These induced LCCs (iLCCs) efficiently give rise to tumors that closely resemble human combined hepatocellular cholangiocarcinoma after transplantation to immunodeficient mice. We conducted RNA-seq analyses to investigate the characteristincs of the tumors derived from iLCCs. RNA-Seq analyses for the tumors derived from iLCCs.

本研究证实，FOXA3、HNF1A、HNF1B、LIN28B、L-MYC及KLF5这6种转录因子组成的组合，可将人脐静脉内皮细胞（human umbilical vein endothelial cells, HUVECs）直接诱导转化为成肝癌细胞（liver cancer-forming cells, LCCs）。将上述诱导产生的成肝癌细胞（induced LCCs, iLCCs）移植至免疫缺陷小鼠体内后，可高效生成与人类肝细胞胆管细胞混合型癌（combined hepatocellular cholangiocarcinoma）表型高度相似的肿瘤。本研究通过转录组测序（RNA-seq）分析了iLCCs来源肿瘤的特征；针对iLCCs来源肿瘤的转录组测序分析。