Possible Relevance of Hepatoma-derived Growth Factor and Alkylglycerone Phosphate Synthase to Pancreatic Cancer Progression

Background/Aim: We identified a new growth factor, hepatoma-derived growth factor (HDGF), and reported that its expression is associated with the prognosis of various cancer types, including pancreatic cancer. Recently, we determined that alkylglycerone phosphate synthase (AGPS) gene is a target of HDGF in hepatoma cells. Herein, we examined the possible involvement of HDGF and AGPS in pancreatic cancer progression. Materials and Methods: The growth-promoting effect of HDGF on pancreatic cancer cells (Suit-2) was evaluated in vitro. Using the public database UCSC Xena, the expression of HDGF between normal and cancerous pancreatic tissues was compared. The relevance of the expression of HDGF to the prognosis of pancreatic cancer was assessed using two public cancer databases (UCSC Xena and Kaplan-Meier Plotter). The correlation between the expression of AGPS in pancreatic cancer tissue and the expression of HDGF was examined and the expression of AGPS between normal and cancerous pancreatic tissues compared. Furthermore, the association between the expression of AGPS and the prognosis of pancreatic cancer was examined. Results: The administration of recombinant HDGF protein promoted in vitro pancreatic cancer cell proliferation. HDGF expression in pancreatic cancer tissues from patients was higher than that in normal pancreatic tissues. Additionally, two different databases revealed that high expression of HDGF was associated with a poor prognosis in patients with pancreatic cancer. The expression of AGPS was positively correlated with the HDGF expression in pancreatic cancer tissues. In addition to the expression of HDGF, the expression of AGPS in pancreatic cancer tissues was higher than that in normal pancreatic tissues and high expression of AGPS was associated with the poor prognosis of pancreatic cancer. Conclusion: HDGF and AGPS are suggested to be involved in pancreatic cancer progression.