Identification of Differentiation-Related Biomarkers in Liposarcoma Tissues Using Weighted Gene Co-Expression Network Analysis

Background: A thorough diagnosis of liposarcoma is essential to develop an optimal therapy. This study aimed to identify differentiation-related biomarkers in liposarcoma. Methods: Expression profiling data were downloaded from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database. Modules correlated with dedifferentiated liposarcoma were identified using weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA). Differentiallyexpressed genes were identified utilizing the limma R package. Gene ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analyses were conducted with the clusterProfiler R package. Hub genes were identified by least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) analysis. Survival analysis was performed using survival and survminer R packages. Results: The brown module was the most positively correlated module with dedifferentiated liposarcoma, while the turquoise module exhibited the strongest negative correlation with dedifferentiated liposarcoma. Forty-nine upregulated common genes were found by intersecting the upregulated differentially-expressed genes with the co-expressed genes in the brown module, and 177 downregulated common genes were found by intersecting the downregulated differentially-expressed genes with the coexpressed genes in the turquoise module. GO and KEGG analyses revealed that upregulated common genes were abundant in cell division and tumor-related pathways, while downregulated common genes were involved in cellular metabolism and metabolismrelated pathways. ADIPOQ, i7BE2C, and PRC1 were screened out as biomarkers which might distinguish dedifferentiated and well-differentiated liposarcoma. Dedifferentiated liposarcoma patients with low ADIPOQ levels displayed a significantly shorter distant recurrence-free survival than those with high ADIPOQ levels. Conclusion: ADIPOQ, i7BE2C, and PRC1 are potential differentiation-related biomarkers in liposarcoma tissues. ADIPOQ has the potential to be a novel prognostic biomarker for patients with dedifferentiated liposarcoma.