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World J Gastroenterol. Oct 21, 2026; 32(39): 121007
Published online Oct 21, 2026. doi: 10.3748/wjg.121007
Published online Oct 21, 2026. doi: 10.3748/wjg.121007
Androgen-induced gene 1 correlates with extracellular vesicle-associated cholesterol metabolism and hepatic metastasis of pancreatic cancer
Yun-Zhao Luo, Qing Zhao, Fang-Fei Wang, Jin-Hao Li, Shao-Cheng Lyu, Zhe Liu, Ren Lang, Qiang He, Division of Hepatobiliary and Pancreaticosplenic Surgery, Department of General Surgery, Beijing Chao-Yang Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100020, China
Co-first authors: Yun-Zhao Luo and Qing Zhao.
Co-corresponding authors: Ren Lang and Qiang He.
Author contributions: Luo YZ and Zhao Q were responsible for study design, data acquisition and analysis, manuscript writing, and they contributed equally to this manuscript and are co-first authors; Wang FF handled project administration; Li JH provided resources; Lyu SC and Liu Z contributed to data curation; Lang R contributed to conceptualization and validation; He Q oversaw supervision and methodology; Lang R and He Q contributed equally to the manuscript and are co-corresponding authors. All authors approved the final version of the article.
AI contribution statement: Portions of this manuscript were edited using AI tools solely for language refinement. The authors carefully reviewed and verified all AI-assisted outputs and take full responsibility for the scientific content of the manuscript.
Supported by the Clinical Research Enhancement Program of Beijing Chao-Yang Hospital, No. CYTS2025C04; and the Research Project of the China Association of Medical Education, No. ZJWYH-2023-YIZHI-015.
Institutional review board statement: The use of archived human tissue samples was approved by the Institutional Review Board of Beijing Chao-Yang Hospital (Approval No. 2026-1-22-2).
Institutional animal care and use committee statement: The animal study was approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of Beijing Chao-Yang Hospital (Approval No. 26-2005).
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
ARRIVE guidelines statement: The authors have read the ARRIVE guidelines, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the ARRIVE guidelines.
Data sharing statement: Human single-cell RNA sequencing data used in this study were obtained from publicly available repositories (GSE229413, GSE154778, GSE156405, GSE194247, GSE202051, GSE205013, GSE211644, EGAS00001002543, PRJCA001063, phs001840.v1.p1, GSE155698, and GSE158356). The bulk RNA sequencing data described in our study are available in the Sequence Read Archive repository. The accession No. PRJNA1424232 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sra/PRJNA1424232).
Corresponding author: Qiang He, PhD, Chief Physician, Professor, Division of Hepatobiliary and Pancreaticosplenic Surgery, Department of General Surgery, Beijing Chao-Yang Hospital, Capital Medical University, No. 8 Gongti Nan Lu, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100020, China.
Received: March 17, 2026
Revised: May 27, 2026
Accepted: June 15, 2026
Published online: October 21, 2026
Processing time: 173 Days and 9.9 Hours
Revised: May 27, 2026
Accepted: June 15, 2026
Published online: October 21, 2026
Processing time: 173 Days and 9.9 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: Active cholesterol metabolism is a hallmark of pancreatic cancer malignancy. Here, we show that tumor-intrinsic androgen-induced gene 1 knockdown disrupts this metabolic program, remodels the hepatic niche away from immunosuppression, and inhibits metastatic growth. Our findings position androgen-induced gene 1 at the intersection of metabolic and immune regulation, warranting further investigation.