Investigation of common genes in different stages of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease with microarray datasets analysis

Background: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the most common type of chronic liver diseaseworldwide and is a risk factor for developing cirrhosis or hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) if untreated.NAFLD affects around ۹۰% and ۲۵% of obese patients and people worldwide, respectively. Although lotsof efforts have been performed by experts in order to find the underlying mechanisms of NAFLD, it remainsa challenge to recognize them. The aim of this study is to distinguish common gene signatures and pathwaysin the human liver during NAFLD progression through the systems biology method.Method: In this study, the three microarray datasets, GSE۴۸۴۵۲, GSE۶۳۰۶۷, and GSE۸۹۶۳۲, were selectedfrom the NCBI GEO database to explore differentially expressed genes (DEGs) among healthy controls,simple steatosis, and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) patients. Furthermore, protein-protein interaction(PPI) networks and pathway enrichment analysis were used to detect common genes and biological pathwaysin different stages of NAFLD.Results: The current was included ۴۷ healthy subjects, ۳۶ patients with simple steatosis and, ۴۶ NASHpatients. Common high degree genes among all three sets were CHI۳L۱, GFBP۲, NRG۱, PEG۱۰, andFADS۲. The top five genes in the hepatic PPI networks of three datasets were STAT۳, JUN, CANX, FN۱,and MYC. Signal transduction, immune response, and anti-apoptosis were the most important biologicalpathways between healthy vs. NASH, while cell communication, signal transduction, and immune responsewere the three top biological pathways between healthy vs. simple steatosis. Also, the most eminentbiological pathways between NASH vs. simple steatosis were metabolism and energy pathways.Conclusion: The present study represented the unique and shared key genes and pathways between differentstages of NAFLD, which may facilitate the understanding of NAFLD mechanism and identify potentialtherapeutic targets in this disease.

کلیدواژه ها:

Microarray ، Systems biology ، Protein-protein interaction network ، NAFLD ، NASH