DEN-induced rat model reproduces key features of human hepatocellular carcinoma

Using RNA-seq analysis, we study a DEN-induced HCC rat model during fibrosis progression and HCC development with special focus on liver inflammatory microenvironment. RNA-seq results show that DEN-induced liver tumors in rat model share remarkable molecular characteristics with human HCC, especially with HCC associated with high proliferation. In conclusion, our study provides detailed insight into the hepatocarcinogenesis in a commonly used model of HCC, facilitating the future use of this model for preclinical testing. 7-week-old Fischer 344 male rats were treated weekly with intra-peritoneal injections of 50 mg/kg DEN. We analysed 3 different time points of DEN treatment: i) after 8 weeks of DEN injections (DEN08), ii) after 14 weeks of DEN injections (DEN14) and iii) after 14 weeks of DEN injection followed by 6 weeks of no DEN injection (DEN20). Animals of the same age, treated with no DEN were used as controls for 8 weeks (NOD08), 14 weeks (NOD14) and 20 weeks time points (NOD20). Non-tumoral (NT) tissues and Tumoral (T) tissues were analysed separately.