ObjectiveTo detect the expressions of takeda G protein-coupled receptor 5 (TGR5) and mortalin protein 75 in the tissues of patients with intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC), and to explore their relationship with prognosis.MethodsA total of 94 ICC patients who were admitted to Anyang District Hospital and received surgical treatment from March 2015 to March 2018 were selected as the research objects. The expressions of TGR5 and mortalin protein 75 in ICC cancer tissues and adjacent tissues were detected by immunohistochemistry and Western blot (WB). The relationship between the expressions of TGR5 and mortalin protein 75 in ICC cancer tissues and clinicopathological parameters and prognosis was analyzed. Multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression was used to analyze the risk factors of poor prognosis in patients with ICC. ROC curve was used to analyze the diagnostic value of TGR5 and mortalin protein 75 for poor prognosis in patients with ICC.ResultsImmunohistochemical results showed that the positive expression rates of TGR5 and mortalin protein 75 in cancer tissues were significantly higher than those in adjacenttissues (P<0.05). WB results showed that the protein expression levels of TGR5 and mortalin protein 75 in cancer tissues were significantly higher than those in adjacent tissues (P<0.05). The expression of TGR5 protein in cancer tissues of ICC patients was correlated with gender, tumor diameter, degree of differentiation, TNM staging, satellite focus, and liver cirrhosis (P<0.05). The expression of mortalin protein 75 was correlated with tumor diameter, TNM staging, nerve involvement, satellite focus, and liver cirrhosis (P<0.05). There were significant differences in gender, tumor diameter, TNM staging, microvascular invasion, satellite focus, liver cirrhosis, and the expressions of TGR5 and mortalin protein 75 between the poor prognosis group and the good prognosis group (P<0.05). The cumulative 3-year overall survival rate of TGR5 positive patients (32.00%) was significantly lower than that of TGR5 negative patients (63.16%), χ2=6.228, P=0.013; the cumulative 3-year overall survival rate of mortalin protein 75 positive patients (32.91%) was significantly lower than that of mortalin protein 75 negative patients (66.67%), χ2=6.079, P=0.014. Multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression analysis showed that the positive expression of TGR5 and mortalin protein 75, TNM Ⅲ+Ⅳphase, satellite focus, and cirrhosis were risk factors for poor prognosis in ICC patients (P<0.05). ROC results showed that when the expression level of TGR5 was 0.932 as the cut-off value, its AUC in the diagnosis of poor prognosis of ICC patients was 0.783, the sensitivity was 72.4%, the specificity was 72.2%; when the expression level of mortalin protein 75 was 0.756 as the cut-off value, its AUC in the diagnosis of poor prognosis of ICC patients was 0.805, the sensitivity was 84.4%, the specificity was 63.9%; the AUC of combined diagnosis of TGR5 and mortalin protein 75 was 0.884, the sensitivity was 79.3%, the specificity was 83.3%.ConclusionsThe high expressions of TGR5 and mortalin protein 75 in cancer tissues of ICC patients are associated with poor prognosis, and they are risk factors for poor prognosis. The combined detection of TGR5 and mortalin protein 75 has a certain value in predicting poor prognosis, and can be used as potential biological indicators.