{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,11,2]],"date-time":"2026-11-02T20:03:52Z","timestamp":1793649832118,"version":"4.5.1"},"reference-count":32,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,15]],"date-time":"2026-04-15T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1776211200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Immunol."],"abstract":"<jats:p>Sarcopenia and ulcerative colitis (UC) may share potential biological links through mechanisms involving immune dysregulation, gut microbiota imbalance, and inflammatory pathway activation. This study aimed to identify fatty acid metabolism-related shared genes between UC and sarcopenia. A total of 277 shared differentially expressed genes (sDEGs) were identified, which were mainly enriched in immune-, inflammation-, and metabolism-related pathways. By intersecting the sDEGs with fatty acid metabolism-related gene sets, 13 fatty acid metabolism-related shared differentially expressed genes (FAM-sDEGs) were obtained, and unsupervised clustering based on these genes stratified UC patients into distinct molecular subtypes. Using machine learning and feature-ranking methods, PHYH and HSD17B3 were ultimately identified as key hub genes. ROC analysis showed that these two genes exhibited diagnostic value for both sarcopenia and UC across multiple datasets. In addition, the expression of the hub genes was significantly associated with immune cell infiltration profiles and was further validated in independent datasets. Preliminary validation in a UC cell model confirmed the downregulation of PHYH, while immunohistochemical analysis of colonic tissues further supported the downregulated expression of PHYH in patients with UC, consistent with the bioinformatics results. Collectively, these findings suggest that fatty acid metabolism may play an important role in the shared molecular features between UC and sarcopenia, and that PHYH may serve as potential diagnostic biomarkers.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3389\/fimmu.2026.1801914","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,15]],"date-time":"2026-04-15T05:41:24Z","timestamp":1776231684000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":3,"title":["Shared molecular features and potential diagnostic biomarkers between ulcerative colitis and sarcopenia: an integrative bioinformatics analysis with preliminary experimental validation"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"17","author":[{"given":"Beiying","family":"Deng","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Geriatric, Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University","place":["Wuhan, Hubei, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yinghui","family":"Liu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Geriatric, Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University","place":["Wuhan, Hubei, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Pengzhan","family":"He","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Geriatric, Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University","place":["Wuhan, Hubei, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Nian","family":"Wang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Geriatric, Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University","place":["Wuhan, Hubei, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Lin","family":"Xu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Geriatric, Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University","place":["Wuhan, Hubei, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jingjing","family":"Ma","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Geriatric, Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University","place":["Wuhan, Hubei, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,15]]},"reference":[{"key":"B1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"892","DOI":"10.1016\/j.tips.2024.08.003","article-title":"Ulcerative colitis: clinical biomarkers, therapeutic targets, and emerging treatments","volume":"45","author":"Wangchuk","year":"2024","journal-title":"Trends Pharmacol Sci"},{"key":"B2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"42","DOI":"10.1186\/s43556-024-00207-w","article-title":"Ulcerative colitis: molecular insights and intervention therapy","volume":"5","author":"Liang","year":"2024","journal-title":"Mol BioMed"},{"key":"B3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/S0140-6736(23)00966-2","article-title":"Ulcerative colitis","volume":"402","author":"Le Berre","year":"2023","journal-title":"Lancet"},{"key":"B4","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.metabol.2023.155533","article-title":"Epidemiology of sarcopenia: Prevalence, risk factors, and consequences","volume":"144","author":"Yuan","year":"2023","journal-title":"Metabolism"},{"key":"B5","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1002\/jcsm.13341","article-title":"Impact of malnutrition and sarcopenia on quality of life in patients with inflammatory bowel disease: A multicentre study","volume":"14","author":"Zhang","year":"2023","journal-title":"J Cachexia Sarcopenia Muscle"},{"key":"B6","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1002\/jgh3.13033","article-title":"Sarcopenia and frailty in inflammatory bowel disease: Emerging concepts and evidence","volume":"8","author":"Neelam","year":"2024","journal-title":"JGH Open"},{"key":"B7","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.3390\/jcm10184214","article-title":"Inflammatory bowel disease and sarcopenia: Its mechanism and clinical importance","volume":"10","author":"Nishikawa","year":"2021","journal-title":"J Clin Med"},{"key":"B8","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1521","DOI":"10.1016\/j.dld.2021.05.010","article-title":"Sarcopenia and acute severe ulcerative colitis patients","volume":"53","author":"Li","year":"2021","journal-title":"Dig Liver Dis"},{"key":"B9","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.5217\/ir.2023.00090","article-title":"Sarcopenia is common in ulcerative colitis and correlates with disease activity","volume":"22","author":"Neelam","year":"2024","journal-title":"Intest Res"},{"key":"B10","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.mam.2024.101322","article-title":"Diet and exercise in frailty and sarcopenia. 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