FUT4 promotes the progression of Cholangiocarcinoma by modulating epithelial-mesenchymal transition

ABSTRACT

Cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) is a common gastrointestinal malignancy characterized by a poor prognosis. Considering its prevalence, exploring its underlying molecular biological mechanisms is of paramount clinical importance. In this study, bioinformatics techniques were utilized to analyze CCA sample data obtained from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) databases. The analysis revealed a notable upregulation in FUT4 expression in CCA samples. To further investigate the functional implications of FUT4, in vivo and in vitro experiments were conducted, which demonstrated that FUT4 overexpression significantly enhances the proliferative and migratory capabilities of tumor cells. Subsequent sequencing analysis unveiled a correlation between FUT4 and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). Indeed, the pioneering discovery of elevated FUT4 expression in CCA was highlighted in this study. Further investigations into the function of FUT4 in CCA provided initial insights into its role in driving cancer progression via EMT. These findings present promising avenues for the diagnosis and treatment of CCA.

KEYWORDS:

• Cholangiocarcinoma
• Epithelial-mesenchymal transition
• FUT4

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Authors’ contributions

Enchi Liu analyzed the data, wrote the manuscript and conducted the experiments. Xingwang Qian and Yuan He collected the clinical specimens. Kunlun Chen revised the manuscript.

Ethics statement

The research was approved by the Zhengzhou University First Affiliated Hospital Ethics Committee (Zhengzhou, China). Also, the experiments were conducted complying with the relevant regulations and the written informed consents were obtained from patients.

Data availability statement

The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available on Science Data Bank(www.scidb.cn), DOI: 10.57760/sciencedb.13279.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/15384101.2024.2318949.

Additional information

Funding

The project was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [No. 81702863].