RNA-sequencing analysis of human fibrolamellar hepatocellular carcinoma and 4 maturational stages of the human hepatobiliary system

The etiology of fibrolamellar hepatocellular carcinoma (FL-HCC), a liver cancer occurring increasingly in children to young adults, is poorly understood. We performed high-throughput sequencing on mRNA isolated from a newly developed model of FL-HCC and 4 different maturational lineages of the hepatobiliary system. Our results indicate that the transcriptome of FL-HCC is most similar to that of biliary tree stem cells. Overall design: mRNA profiles of a newly developed model of FL-HCC and 4 maturational stages of the human hepatobiliary system (biliary tree stem cells, hepatic stem cells, hepatoblasts, and adult hepatocytes) were generated by high throughput sequencing using the Illumina HiSeq 2500.