Intrahepatic Microbial Heterogeneity in Multifocal Hepatocellular Carcinoma and Its Association with Host Genomic and Transcriptomic Alterations.

ABSTRACT: The signature of the intrahepatic microbiome in multifocal hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and its association with genomic alterations remain elusive. In this study, we performed multiomics profiling of 242 HCC tumor nodules and 58 adjacent nontumor tissues from 58 patients with multifocal HCC, revealing heterogeneous microbial communities in multifocal HCC. The presence of bacteria in HCC nodules was confirmed by Gram stain, lipopolysaccharide, lipoteichoic acid staining, and transmission electron microscopy. Mutational profiling stratified patients into intrahepatic metastasis (IM)-HCC and multicentric occurrence (MO)-HCC. Bacterial communities differed between IM and MO nodules (P = 0.01). A nine-bacterium biomarker panel could distinguish IM nodules from MO nodules with an AUROC of 0.7

SUBMITTER: Lu Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12319405 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature