Abstract:ObjectiveTo investigate the potential mechanism of epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) on the occurrence of thyroid cancer,to understand the expression of EMT-related genes in thyroid cancer tissues,and to explore its prognostic value.MethodsA total of 568 transcriptome expression profile data of thyroid cancer and 508 patients′ clinical data were download from the TCGA database to find differential genes in the transcriptome group expression profile,and to analyze the functional enrichment of differential genes.Western blot was used to detect FN1 in thyroid cancer tissues and corresponding adjacent tissues from 5 patients to verify the differential expression of FN1.The expression level of epithelial marker E-cadherin was detected to understand the level of EMT in thyroid cancer tissues.The correlation between EMT-related genes FN1,MMP11,GLT8D2 and differential genes were analyzed,and a Cox model was constructed using EMT-related genes to predict the prognosis of patients with stage Ⅰ to ⅣC thyroid cancer.ResultsDifferential gene analysis showed that a total of 1 136 genes were differentially expressed in tumors and normal tissues.These genes were 11.6% enriched in the EMT pathway;Western blot showed that FN1 was highly expressed and E-cadherin was lowly expressed in thyroid cancer tissues.Correlation analysis showed that FN1,MMP11,GLT8D2 were highly correlated with 1 136 differential genes,in particular,the absolute value of the Pearson correlation coefficient of FN1 and 484 genes was greater than 0.5,the strongest positive correlation coefficient was 0.853,and the strongest negative correlation coefficient was -0.819.The results of Cox regression analysis showed that the combination of FN1,MMP11 and GLT8D2 had a higher prognostic value for patients with stage Ⅰ~ⅣC(AUC=0.893).ConclusionsEMT exists in thyroid cancer tissues,and FN1 gene may be an important molecule in the study of mechanism of thyroid cancer.