Stroma-associated FSTL3 is a factor of calcium channel-derived tumor fibrosis

Abstract

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most widespread histological form of primary liver cancer, and it faces great diagnostic and therapeutic difficulties owing to its tumor diversity. Herein, we aim to establish a unique prognostic molecular subtype (MST) and based on this to find potential therapeutic targets to develop new immunotherapeutic strategies. Using calcium channel molecules expression-based consensus clustering, we screened 371 HCC patients from The Cancer Genome Atlas to screen for possible MSTs. We distinguished core differential gene modules between varying MSTs, and Tumor Immune Dysfunction and Exclusion scores were employed for the reliable assessment of HCC patient immunotherapeutic response rate. Immunohistochemistry and Immunofluorescence staining were used for validation of predicted immunotherapy outcomes and underlying biological mechanisms, respectively. We identified two MSTs with different clinical characteristics and prognoses. Based on the significant differences between the two MSTs, we further identified Follistatin-like 3 (FSTL3) as a potential indicator of immunotherapy resistance and validated this result in our own cohort. Finally, we found that FSTL3 is predominantly expressed in HCC stromal components and that it is a factor in enhancing fibroblast-M2 macrophage signaling crosstalk, the function of which is relevant to the pathogenesis of HCC. The presence of two MSTs associated with the calcium channel phenotype in HCC patients may provide promising directions for overcoming immunotherapy resistance in HCC, and the promotion of FSTL3 expressed in stromal components for HCC hyperfibrosis may be responsible for the poor response rate to immunotherapy in Cluster 2 (C2) patients.