Distinct and shared synergistic effects of high-fat and high-iron diets on liver tumorigenesis and transcriptomic...

The incidence of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is increasingly driven by metabolic risk factors, including obesity and iron overload. Although high-fat and high-iron diets independently promote hepatocarcinogenesis, their shared and distinct molecular effects remain unclear. We sought to define how dietary fat and iron differentially shape HCC development.

Male C3HeB/FeJ mice were exposed to long-term high-fat (HFD), high-iron (HID), or combined (HFD+HID) diets for 16.5 months. Tumor burden, hepatic iron distribution, mTOR signaling, oxidized phospholipid (OxPL) accumulation, and transcriptomic alterations across normal, adjacent non-tumor, and tumor liver tissues were analyzed using biochemical, histological, and RNA sequencing approaches.

All diets induced HCC with comparable tumor burden. HID increased iron levels in non-tumor liver tissue but resulted in relative iron depletion within tumors, indicating tumor-specific iron utilization. Tumors from all diet groups showed robust mTOR activation and increased OxPL accumulation, with stronger oxidative stress signatures in HFD and HFD+HID tumors. Transcriptomic analyses revealed conserved oncogenic programs alongside diet-specific signatures, with HFD exerting a dominant effect on metabolic reprogramming and gene dysregulation, whereas HID preferentially enhanced immune and inflammatory signaling. Progressive, monotonic changes in gene expression were observed across disease stages. Cross-species analyses linked diet-induced mouse tumors to immunologically "hot" human HCC subtypes.

Dietary fat and iron promote HCC through overlapping yet distinct molecular pathways, highlighting metabolic and immune mechanisms as key targets in diet-associated liver cancer.