The diagnosis and prognostic value and biological function of annexin A2 in hepatocellular carcinoma: a bioinformatic and experimental study

Annexin A2 (ANXA2) is a Annexin family proteins member that plays a role in regulating cell growth and signal transduction pathways. However, its role in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains incompletely elucidated. We used bioinformatics methods to analyze the expression, diagnosis and prognostic value of ANXA2 in HCC using data from the TCGA, GTEx, GEO, HCCDB, HPA databases. Next, we predicted ANXA2-associated proteins and constructed a protein-protein interaction network via the STRING database. Furthermore, we obtained the biological processes associated with ANXA2 in HCC through GO, KEGG and GSEA enrichment analysis. Finally, CCK8, wound healing, and transwell were used to verify these biological processes in HCCLM3 cell lines. Insight box ANXA2 is highly expressed in a variety of tumors, with significantly higher levels in HCC than in normal tissues. ANXA2 expression is positively correlated with T stage, histologic grade, residual tumor, pathologic stage, tumor status and fibrosis ishak score in HCC, and high ANXA2 expression suggests a poorer prognosis. Additionally, ANXA2 has diagnostic value in HCC. Its expression is closely associated with S100A family proteins and immune infiltration. Enrichment analysis showed that high ANXA2 expression activates biological processes such as epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), NF-κB and Wnt signaling pathways. The results of cell experiment were consistent with bioinformatics analysis. Our study explored the role of ANXA2 in the occurrence and development of HCC, which may provide reference for the treatment of HCC.