Gene expression profiling reveals upregulated FUT1 and MYBPC1 in children with pancreaticobiliary maljunction

Pancreaticobiliary maljunction (PBM) is associated with high risk of epithelial atypical growth and malignant transformation of the bile duct or gallbladder. However, overall changes in genetic expression have not been examined in children with PBM. Genome-wide expression was analyzed using peripheral blood samples from 10 children with PBM and 15 pediatric controls. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified using microarray. Bioinformatics analysis was conducted using Gene Ontology and KEGG analyses. The top 5 in the up-regulated genes in PBM were verified with qRT-PCR. Receiver operator characteristic curve analysis was conducted to evaluate the predictive accuracy of selected genes for PBM. The microarray experiments identified a total of 876 DEGs in PBM, among which 530 were up-regulated and the remaining 346 were down-regulated. Verification of the top 5 up-regulated genes (TYMS, MYBPC1, FUT1, XAGE2, and GREB1L) by qRT-PCR confirmed the up-regulation of MYBPC1 and FUT1. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis suggested that FUT1 and MYBPC1 up-regulation could be used to predict PBM, with the area under the curve of 0.873 (95%CI=0.735−1.000) and 0.960 (95%CI=0.891−1.000), respectively. FUT1 and MYBPC1 were up-regulated in children with PBM, and could be used as potential biomarkers for PBM.