Chungui Xu, Shaoyan Cheng, Kun Chen, Qianqian Song, Chang Liu, Chunsun Fan, Ruochan Zhang, Qing Zhu, Zhiyuan Wu, Yuting Wang, Jian Fan, Hongwei Zheng, Lingling Lu, Taoyang Chen, Hong Zhao, Yuchen Jiao, Chunfeng Qu
BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Aflatoxin exposure increases the risk for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in hepatitis B virus (HBV)-infected individuals, particularly males. We investigated sex-based differences in the HCC genome and antitumor immunity. METHODS: Whole-genome, whole-exome, and RNA sequencing were performed on 101 HCC patient samples (47 males, 54 females) resulted from HBV infection and aflatoxin exposure from Qidong (QD-HCCs). Androgen on the expression of aflatoxin metabolism-related genes and nonhomologous DNA end joining (NHEJ) factors were examined in HBV-positive HCC cell lines, and further tested in tumor-bearing syngeneic mice...
October 19, 2022: Cellular and Molecular Gastroenterology and Hepatology