Figure 1

Integrative and cross-species comparative genomics approach to identify evolutionary conserved inter-species biomarkers for early HCC differentiated from liver regeneration. Gene expression signature for early rat HCC is differentiated from liver regeneration and normal liver in young and old using a microarray approach. Next, the cross-species comparative analysis was performed to identify genes that are conserved in early rat HCCs and in multiple independent early human HCCs, which would facilitate the identification of critical regulatory modules in the expression profiles. Finally, the integrative analysis of genomic copy number alteration (CNA) regions and gene expression profiles as well as independent validation analyses both in silico and with quantitative realtime RT-PCR were performed. HCC, hepatocellular carcinoma.