Abstract：Objective: To analyze characteristics of dual specificity phosphatases (DUSPs) gene family expression in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and their correlation with severity of clinical prognosis and immune cells infiltration. Methods: Characteristics of DUSPs mRNA expression and its correlation with severity of clinical prognosis and immune cell infiltration were analyzed in public database: Oncomine、GEPIA、Kaplan-Meier plotter,TCGA,TIMER. 19 paired HCC tissues were collected from our hospital to analyze DUSPs protein expression characteristics and their correlation with the pathological grade and clinical stage. Gene enrichment analysis (GSEA) was used to predict the possible mechanism of DUSPs involved in HCC progression. Results: Public database analysis results showed that compared with adjacent tissues, DUSP12 mRNA was highly expressed in HCC tumour tissues (P<0.05), and high expression of DUSP12 mRNA was associated with decreased overall survival rate (P< 0.001), increased pathological grade (P<0.001), increased elevated immune cells infiltration (P<0.001) and elevated expression of immune checkpoint related molecules (P<0.001). Immunohistochemical staining results of paired HCC postoperative tumour and adjacent tissues collected in our hospital showed that compared with adjacent tissues, DUSP12 protein was highly expressed in HCC tumour tissues (P<0.001), and further increased with the increase of pathological grade (P<0.05) and clinical stage (P<0.05). GSEA predicted that DUSP12 was involved in HCC progression by regulating cell cycle, RNA splicing, bile acid synthesis and retinol metabolism. Conclusion: DUSP12 expression is significantly up-regulated in HCC tumour tissues, and HCC patients with high expression of DUSP12 have decreased overall survival rate, increased pathological grade, elevated immune cell infiltration and expression of immune checkpoint related molecules. DUSP12 can be used as an important biomarker to predict the pathological grade and prognosis of HCC patients.
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2022, Vol. 28 
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