[2] Moreover, predisposing risk factors for HCC development, such as alcohol and metabolic disease, exhibit alarmingly increasing trends in the Western world. Among these, metabolic syndrome and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease are of particular interest due to a predicted raise in prevalence and high numbers of HCC without underlying cirrhosis.[3,

4] Although considerable efforts to unravel genetic determinants of liver cancer Microbiology inhibitor have been made in recent decades, the exact pathogenesis remains to be elucidated and significantly varies between the different etiologies. In nonalcoholic steatohepatitis patients, the molecular changes are highly associated with the development of insulin resistance.[4] However, in addition to etiological differences, a common phenotypic hallmark feature of the majority of HCCs is the so-called inflammation-fibrosis-cancer selleck inhibitor axis, orchestrated by a complex interplay of different cell types and molecular features.[5] Sirtuin 6 (SIRT6) is a member of the evolutionarily

conserved sirtuin family of NAD+-dependent protein deacetylases and is involved in the regulation of glucose metabolism, triglyceride synthesis, and fat metabolism.[6-8] Sirt6-deficient animals present with early lethality due to profound abnormalities, including hypoglycemia and premature aging.[9, 10] Moreover, conditional disruption of Sirt6 in hepatocytes leads to increased glycolysis, triglyceride synthesis, reduced beta oxidation, and, ultimately, fatty liver formation. Furthermore, specimens from steatotic human livers show significantly lower levels of SIRT6 than control tissues, indicating a prominent role of SIRT6 in liver homeostasis.[11] A well-known mechanism in expediting the inflammation-fibrosis-cancer sequence is the activation of nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB).[12] Although the regulation of NF-κB is complex, epigenetic modulation of NF-κB activation (e.g., by histone deacetylation) is well characterized.[8,

13] Recently, it was demonstrated that SIRT6 is a key component of histone H3 lysine 9 activity and plays a prominent role in the regulation of NF-κB signaling during inflammation, stress response, and aging.[14, 15] Over the last decade, comparative functional genomics have been repeatedly MCE and successfully employed to reproduce molecular features of human hepatocellular cancers using appropriate mouse models. This approach contributed significantly to a better understanding of the molecular features of HCC and led to the discovery of novel therapeutic targets.[16-18] Given the importance of SIRT6 in hepatocyte function and homeostasis of liver metabolism, we applied comparative and integrative genomics to determine the role of SIRT6 in human hepatocarcinogenesis. As a result, we demonstrated a stepwise reduction of SIRT6 levels from preneoplastic stages of hepatocarcinogenesis to human HCCs as well as an association of SIRT6 signaling with the outcome of liver and other cancers.