Comparison of the gene expression profiles between gallstones and gallbladder polyps

Gallstones and gallbladder polyps (GPs) are two major types of gallbladder diseases that share multiple common symptoms. However, their pathological mechanism remains largely unknown. The aim of our study is to identify gallstones and GPs related-genes and gain an insight into the underlying genetic basis of these diseases.

We enrolled 7 patients with gallstones and 2 patients with GP for RNA-Seq and we conducted functional enrichment analysis and protein-protein interaction (PPI) networks analysis for identified differentially expressed genes (DEGs).

RNA-Seq produced 41.7 million in gallstones and 32.1 million pairs in GPs. A total of 147 DEGs was identified between gallstones and GPs. We found GO terms for molecular functions significantly enriched in antigen binding (GO:0003823, P=5.9E-11), while for biological processes, the enriched GO terms were immune response (GO:0006955, P=2.6E-15), and for cellular component, the enriched GO terms were extracellular region (GO:0005576, P=2.7E-15). To further evaluate the biological significance for the DEGs, we also performed the KEGG pathway enrichment analysis. The most significant pathway in our KEGG analysis was Cytokine-cytokine receptor interaction (P=7.5E-06). PPI network analysis indicated that the significant hub proteins containing S100A9 (S100 calcium binding protein A9, Degree=94) and CR2 (complement component receptor 2, Degree=8).

This present study suggests some promising genes and may provide a clue to the role of these genes playing in the development of gallstones and GPs.