Abstract: Objective To investigate the expression and prognostic value of HILPDA gene in hepatocellular carcinoma,and further explore the potential clinical application value of HILPDA. Methods The bioinformatics method was used to download the mRNA sequencing data of hepatocellular carcinoma and the clinical data of patients from the TCGA database.The differences of HILPDA expression in hepatocellular carcinoma and adjacent tissues were analyzed.Univariate Cox regression and multivariate Cox regression were used to analyze the relationship between HILPDA expression level and prognosis of patients.The possible mechanism of HILPDA was investigated by GESA enrichment method.TIMER database was used to analyze the relationship between HILPDA gene expression and immune cell infiltration.Results The expression level of HILPDA gene in hepatocellular carcinoma tissues was higher than that in corresponding paracancer tissues.The expression level of HILPDA was correlated with tumor size(P<0.001),lymph node metastasis(P<0.01),pathological grade(P<0.05) and serum AFP level(P<0.01).Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that HILPDA expression level was an independent prognostic factor in hepatocellular carcinoma patients,and patients with high expression level had a poor prognosis.Using TIMER database,the expression level of HILPDA is correlated with immune invasion of Th1 and Macrophage cells(P<0.001).Conclusion HILPDA may be a prognostic factor and a potential molecular therapeutic target for hepatocellular carcinoma.

Key words: hepatocellular carcinoma, hypoxia-induced lipid droplet-associated protein, prognosis, immune cell, bioinformatics analysis