Under abnormal conditions the excessive reactive oxygen species generation results in genetic predisposition of various genes (as ADH, ALDH, CYP2E1, GSTT1, GSTP1 and GSTM1) involved in xenobiotic metabolic pathways, associated with susceptibility to different liver related diseases such as fibrosis, cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma.
Acetaldehyde dehydrogenase 2 (<i>ALDH2</i>) and cytochrome P450 2E1 (<i>CYP2E1</i>) have been associated with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) susceptibility and prognosis.
Herein, we measured CYP2E1 activity and the expression of CD163 (an M2 marker) and CD68 (a pan-macrophage marker) in hepatofibrotic tissue from HCC patients (n = 26) with comparison to normal liver tissue (n = 26).
We finally obtained a list of only five genes (AGXT; ALDOB; CYP2E1; IGFBP3; TOP2A) that were differentially expressed in tumor and nontumor tissues across studies and were significantly correlated to HCC prognosis.Only AGXT had not been reported in HCC.