Abstract
BACKGROUND: To uncover the genes involved in the development of osteosarcoma (OS), we performed a meta-analysis of OS microarray data to identify differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and biological functions associated with gene expression changes between OS and normal control (NC) tissues. METHODS: We used publicly available GEO datasets of OS to perform a meta-analysis. We performed Gene Ontology (GO) enrichment analysis, Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway analysis and Protein-Protein interaction (PPI) networks analysis. RESULTS: Eight GEO datasets, including 240 samples of OS and 35 samples of controls, were available for the meta-analysis. We identified 979 DEGs across the studies between OS and NC tissues (472 up-regulated and 507 down-regulated). We found GO terms for molecular functions significantly enriched in protein binding (GO: 0005515, P = 3.83E-60) and calcium ion binding (GO: 0005509, P = 3.79E-13), while for biological processes, the enriched GO terms were cell adhesion (GO:0007155, P = 2.26E-19) and negative regulation of apoptotic process (GO: 0043066, P = 3.24E-15), and for cellular component, the enriched GO terms were cytoplasm (GO: 0005737, P = 9.18E-63) and extracellular region (GO: 0005576, P = 2.28E-47). The most significant pathway in our KEGG analysis was Focal adhesion (P = 5.70E-15). Furthermore, ECM-receptor interaction (P = 1.27E-13) and Cell cycle (P = 4.53E-11) are found to be highly enriched. PPI network analysis indicated that the significant hub proteins containing PTBP2 (Degree = 33), RGS4 (Degree = 15) and FXYD6 (Degree = 13). CONCLUSIONS: Our meta-analysis detected DEGs and biological functions associated with gene expression changes between OS and NC tissues, guiding further identification and treatment for OS.