S100 calcium binding protein A6 and associated long noncoding ribonucleic acids as biomarkers in the diagnosis and staging of primary biliary cholangitis

BACKGROUND: Primary biliary cholangitis (PBC) is a chronic and slowly progressing cholestatic disease, which causes damage to the small intrahepatic bile duct by immuno-regulation, and may lead to cholestasis, liver fibrosis, cirrhosis and, eventually, liver failure. AIM: To explore the potential diagnosis and staging value of plasma S100 calcium binding protein A6 (S100A6) messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA), LINC00312, LINC00472, and LINC01257 in primary biliary cholangitis. METHODS: A total of 145 PBC patients and 110 healthy controls (HCs) were enrolled. Among them, 80 PBC patients and 60 HCs were used as the training set, and 65 PBC patients and 50 HCs were used as the validation set. The relative expression levels of plasma S100A6 mRNA, long noncoding ribonucleic acids LINC00312, LINC00472 and LINC01257 were analyzed using quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction. The bile duct ligation (BDL) mouse model was used to simulate PBC. Then double immunofluorescence was conducted to verify the overexpression of S100A6 protein in intrahepatic bile duct cells of BDL mice. Human intrahepatic biliary epithelial cells were treated with glycochenodeoxycholate to simulate the cholestatic environment of intrahepatic biliary epithelial cells in PBC. RESULTS: < 0.0001). The AUC for the four biomarkers obtained in the validation set were close to the training set. CONCLUSION: These four genes may potentially act as novel biomarkers for the diagnosis of PBC. Moreover, LINC00472 acts as a potential biomarker for staging in PBC.