Transcriptome analysis of hepatocellular carcinoma and adjacent non-tumor liver tissues [I]

Integrin alpha 6 (ITGA6) forms integrin receptors with either integrin ß1 (ITGB1) or integrin beta 4 (ITGB4). To study its expression and regulatory functions in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) progression, whole transcriptome RNA sequencing in paired HCC tumor and adjacent non-tumor liver tissue samples from ten local Hispanic patients was performed. The average expression of ITGA6 was found increased by over 3.5-fold in HCC tumor tissues in comparison with their adjacent non-tumor tissues. The study indicates integrin alpha6-beta4 complex as a potential therapeutic target for treating patients in HCC. Overall design: 10 tumor-normal pairs of HCC samples were profiled using high-throughput RNA sequencing techniques and their relative gene expression levels were compared.