Low-Grade Dysplastic Nodules Revealed as the Tipping Point during Multistep Hepatocarcinogenesis by Dynamic Network Biomarkers.

ABSTRACT: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a complex disease with a multi-step carcinogenic process from preneoplastic lesions, including cirrhosis, low-grade dysplastic nodules (LGDNs), and high-grade dysplastic nodules (HGDNs) to HCC. There is only an elemental understanding of its molecular pathogenesis, for which a key problem is to identify when and how the critical transition happens during the HCC initiation period at a molecular level. In this work, for the first time, we revealed that LGDNs is the tipping point (i.e., pre-HCC state rather than HCC state) of hepatocarcinogenesis based on a series of gene expression profiles by a new mathematical model termed dynamic network biomarkers (DNB)-a group of dominant genes or molecules for the transition. Different from the conventional biomarkers

SUBMITTER: Lu L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5664118 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature