Adipocyte-derived FABP4 promotes MASLD-induced hepatocellular carcinoma by driving ITGB1-mediated ß-catenin activation

The mechanism underlying regulatory role of FABP4 in MASLD-HCC development was examined using bulk RNA sequencing. Overall design: Chemically induced MASLD-HCC model was generated using male wildtype and Fabp4 knockout C57BL/6N mice. They were treated with N-nitrosodiethylamine at 25mg/kg intraperitoneally at the age of 14 days. Starting at 6 weeks of age, they were fed with high fat diet for 29 weeks. Tumor nodules in the livers were extracted for bulk RNA sequencing.