Abstract 2726: Clinicopathological and molecular significance of MUC13 in HCC.

Abstract Background: Mucin 13 (MUC13), a cell surface glycoprotein aberrantly expressed in multiple epithelial carcinomas. Although in liver cancer MUC13 has not been comprehensively investigated. This study elucidates the clinical and molecular relevance of MUC13 expression in liver cancer samples followed by its role in liver carcinogenesis. Methods: The significance of MUC13 and its impact on hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) was investigated in MUC13 positive and negative subsets of HCC samples using an integrated approach combining bioinformatics and molecular biology. We performed proteomics analysis on protein samples extracted from paraffin embedded (FFPE) tissues. Differentially expressed proteins were identified by bioinformatics guided mass spectrometry and functional enrichment analyses. The MUC13 expression status was conformed in HCC tissue before samples selected for proteomics analysis. Later we performed MUC13 IHC expression analysis in HCC, MSLD, MASH, and fibrosis samples. Further, MUC13 expression in serum samples were determined by sandwich ELISA while cytokines profiling analyses were performed using cytokines arrays. Result: Our deep data mining and bioinformatics analyses demonstrated higher expression of MUC13 in HCC samples as compared to normal liver and a similar pattern was observed in our proteomics analysis. Interestingly, in our proteomics analysis, we observed remarkable molecular level changes in MUC13+ve HCC subset as compared MUC13-ve HCC samples. Some of the key differentially expressed proteins are associated with several important pathways like PTK2 signaling, NF-KB activation, TLR signaling, MAP kinase activation, and AKT signaling. Whereas DNA repair, apoptosis, and TP53 associated pathways were depleted. IHC and ELISA analyses demonstrated strong MUC13 expression in HCC tumors/serum samples as compared to very faint or no expression in normal liver tissues/serum samples. Additionally, we observed a distinct expression pattern of several cytokine (Osteopontin, PDGFs, EMMPRIN/CD147, MIF, ICAM-1, VEGF) in HCC patients versus healthy normal serum samples. Conclusion: This comprehensive study suggests 1) high expression of MUC13 in HCC, 2) MUC13+ve HCC patients’ subset has a remarkable differential molecular profile as compared to MUC13-ve HCC patients’ subset and normal liver tissues samples 3) HCC patients represent a relatively differential cytokine profile as compared to healthy normal serum samples. These intriguing findings suggest a crucial role of MUC13 in HCC and can be a useful indicator for therapy response and prognosis. Citation Format: Anupam Dhasmana, Swati Dhasmana, Rajasekhar Baru, Abigail Gomez, Iris A. Perez, Sheema S. Khan, Murali M. Yallapu, Subhash C. Chauhan, . Clinicopathological and molecular significance of MUC13 in HCC abstract. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2026; Part 1 (Regular Abstracts); 2026 Apr 17-22; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2026;86(7 Suppl):Abstract nr 2726.