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Identification of gene co-expression modules and hub genes associated with the invasiveness of pituitary adenoma

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Abstract

In pituitary adenoma (PA), invasiveness is the main cause of recurrence and poor prognosis. Thus, identifying specific biomarkers for diagnosis and effective treatment of invasive PAs is of great clinical significance. In this study, from the Gene Expression Omnibus database, we obtained and combined several microarrays of PA by the “sva” R package. Weighted gene co-expression network analysis was performed to construct a scale-free topology model and analyze the relationships between the modules and clinical traits. Our analysis results indicated that three key modules (dark turquoise, saddle brown, and steel blue) were associated with the invasiveness of PA. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathway enrichment analysis and Gene Ontology analysis were performed for the functional annotation of the key modules. In addition, the hub genes in the three modules were identified and screened by differential expression analysis between normal samples and PA samples. Three upregulated differentially expressed genes (DGAT2, PIGZ, and DHRS2) were identified. The Fisher’s exact test and receiver operating characteristic curve were used to validate the capability of these genes to distinguish invasive traits, and transcription factor interaction networks were used to further explore the underlying mechanisms of the three genes. Moreover, a lower expression level of DGAT2 in invasive PA tissue than in noninvasive PA tissue was validated by quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction. In general, this study contributes to potential molecular biomarkers of invasive PAs and provides a broader perspective for diagnosis and new therapeutic targets for the invasive PAs.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank all the researchers and staff who supported The Gene Expression Omnibus database.

Funding

This work was funded by the General Program of National Natural Science Foundation of Jiangxi Province (grant number: 20192BAB205042) and the Health and Family Planning Commission of Jiangxi Province (grant number: 20195109).

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  1. These authors contributed equally: Yuancheng Zhou, Xiaorui Fu

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurosurgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University, Nanchang, Jiangxi, PR China

    Yuancheng Zhou, Xiaorui Fu, Zhicheng Zheng, Yu Ren, Zijian Zheng, Bohan Zhang, Jian Duan, Meihua Li, Tao Hong, Guohui Lu & Dongwei Zhou

  2. The First Clinical Medical College of Nanchang University, Nanchang, Jiangxi, PR China

    Yuancheng Zhou, Yu Ren, Zijian Zheng & Bohan Zhang

  3. Medical Department, Queen Mary College , Nanchang University, Nanchang, Jiangxi, China

    Xiaorui Fu

  4. The Fourth Clinical Medical College of Nanchang University, Nanchang, Jiangxi, PR China

    Zhicheng Zheng

  5. Shanggao County People’s Hospital, Yichun, Jiangxi, PR China

    Min Yuan

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Zhou, Y., Fu, X., Zheng, Z. et al. Identification of gene co-expression modules and hub genes associated with the invasiveness of pituitary adenoma. Endocrine 68, 377–389 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12020-020-02316-2

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