Reduced serum high-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels and aberrantly expressed cholesterol metabolism genes in colorectal cancer

Figure 2 Identification of candidate differentially expressed genes. The mRNA expression of differentially expressed genes between tumor and normal tissues was plotted by Gene Expression Profiling Interactive Analysis (GEPIA) with data from the The Cancer Genome Atlas database. A-C: Lipoprotein receptor-related protein 8, PCSK9, and low-density lipoprotein receptor (LDLR) were upregulated in colorectal cancer tissue compared with normal tissue; D, E: MBTPS2 and FDXR showed significantly higher expression only in rectal cancer and colon cancer, respectively; F, G: ABCA1 and OSBPL1A were downregulated in CRC tissue, consistent with the results from Oncomine; H: CELA3A was downregulated; I: SORL1 was upregulated in cancer tissue, which is the reverse of the above results; J-N: The expression levels of APOL1, VLDLR, HDLBP, SREBF2 and APOL2 were comparable between cancer and normal tissues according to the GEPIA analysis results.