Exosome-Related FTCD Facilitates M1 Macrophage Polarization and Impacts the Prognosis of Hepatocellular Carcinoma
Open accessAbstract
Background: Exosomes are essential for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) progression and have garnered significant interest as novel targets for diagnostic, prognostic, and therapeutic approaches. This study aims to identify potential exosome-related biomarkers for the development of useful strategies for HCC diagnosis and therapy. Methods: Three datasets obtained from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) were utilized to identify differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in HCC. Through Gene Ontology (GO) analysis and protein–protein interaction (PPI) network, overall survival (OS) analysis, Cox analyses, and diethylnitrosamine (DEN)-induced HCC mouse model detection, exosome-related hub gene was screened out, followed by a prognostic value assessment and immune-correlates analysis based on the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) dataset. The hub gene-containing exosomes derived from Hepa1-6 cells were isolated and characterized using differential ultracentrifugation, transmission electron microscopy scanning, and Western blot. Ultrasound-guided intrahepatic injection, cell co-culture, CCK-8, and flow cytometry were performed to investigate the effects of the hub gene on macrophage infiltration and polarization in HCC. Results: A total of 83 DEGs enriched in the extracellular exosome term, among which, FTCD, HRA, and C8B showed the strongest association with the progression of HCC. FTCD was independently associated with a protective effect in HCC and selected as the hub gene. The presence of FTCD in exosomes was confirmed. FTCD-stimulated macrophages were polarized towards the M1 type and suppressed HCC cells proliferation. Conclusions: FTCD is a potential exosome-related biomarker for HCC diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment. The crosstalk between FTCD-containing exosomes and macrophages in HCC progression deserves further investigation.
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Cites
Vogel, A., Meyer, T., Sapisochin, G., Salem, R., & Saborowski, A. (2022) · The Lancet · doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(22)01200-4 · Cited by 2,427 · see citing works
Liu, J., Fan, L., Yu, H., Zhang, J., He, Y., Feng, D., Wang, F., Li, X., Liu, Q., Li, Y., et al. (2019) · Hepatology · doi:10.1002/hep.30607 · Cited by 449 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
- Authors
- Liu, Y., Tang, Y., Jiang, H., Zhang, X., Chen, X., Guo, J., Jin, C., & Wu, M.
- Affiliations
- Jiangnan University (CN)
- Wuxi Higher Health Vocational Technology School, Wuxi 214000, China
- Corresponding author
- Jin, Cheng
- Wu, Minchen
- Venue
- Biomolecules
- Publisher
- MDPI AG
- Published
- 2023-12-28
- Volume
- 14
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 41
- ISSN
- 2218-273X (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC10813691
- OpenAlex
- W4390340832
- Cited by
- 19
- References
- 2
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 11 · 2024: 4
- FWCI
- 1.69
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Biomolecules (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- Postdoctoral Science Foundation of China (2021M691278, K20221020)
- “Taihu lake” science and technology project of Wuxi (2021M691278, K20221020)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Extracellular vesicles in disease
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Hepatology › Hepatocellular Carcinoma Treatment and Prognosis
- Life Sciences › Immunology and Microbiology › Immunology › Immune cells in cancer
- Keywords
- hepatocellular carcinoma, exosomes, M1 macrophage polarization, tumor-associated macrophages, prognostic factors, hub genes, tumor microenvironment, tumor cell proliferation
- MeSH terms
- Ammonia-Lyases, Animals, Carcinoma, Hepatocellular, Liver Neoplasms, Mice, Inbred Strains, Blotting, Western, Glutamate Formimidoyltransferase, Mice, Exosomes, Multifunctional Enzymes
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
