Identification of Key Genes and Pathways in Osteosarcoma by Bioinformatics Analysis

Purpose: Osteosarcoma (OS) is the most primary bone malignant tumor in adolescents. Although the treatment of OS has made great progress, patients' prognosis remains poor due to tumor invasion and metastasis.

Materials And Methods: We downloaded the expression profile GSE12865 from the Gene Expression Omnibus database. We screened differential expressed genes (DEGs) by making use of the R limma software package. Based on Gene Ontology, Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes, and Gene Set Enrichment Analysis, we performed the function and pathway enrichment analyses. Then, we constructed a Protein-Protein Interaction network and screened hub genes through the Search Tool for the Retrieval of Interacting Genes.

Result: By analyzing the gene expression profile GSE12865, we obtained 703 OS-related DEGs, which contained 166 genes upregulated and 537 genes downregulated. The DEGs were primarily abundant in ribosome, cell adhesion molecules, ubiquitin-ubiquitin ligase activity, and p53 signaling pathway. The hub genes of OS were KDR, CDH5, CD34, CDC42, RBX1, POLR2C, PPP2CA, and RPS2 through PPI network analysis. Finally, GSEA analysis showed that cell adhesion molecules, chemokine signal pathway, transendothelial migration, and focal adhesion were associated with OS.

Conclusion: In this study, through analyzing microarray technology and bioinformatics analysis, the hub genes and pathways about OS are identified, and the new molecular mechanism of OS is clarified.