Fig. 1

PA2G4 is upregulated in HCC and high expression of PA2G4 predicts poor prognosis. A Relative mRNA expression of PA2G4 in HCC (n = 369) and normal liver tissues (n = 160) analyzed by GEPIA. B, C Kaplan–Meier analyses of overall survival (B) and recurrence free survival (C) for HCC patients in TCGA database with different mRNA level of PA2G4 analyzed by Kaplan–Meier Plotter. D Representative western blot bands of PA2G4 in paired HCC specimens (D1). GAPDH as loading control. Quantification of relative PA2G4 bands intensity in HCC and adjacent non-tumorous tissues by normalizing to GAPDH (D2). Relative PA2G4 expression in HCC was shown as fold change to their respective adjacent non-tumorous liver tissues after normalizing to GAPDH (D3). E Representative IHC images of PA2G4 in paired HCC specimens (E1). HCC-MF: HCC with metastasis free; HCC-EM: HCC with extrahepatic metastases. Scale bar: red bar, 500 μm in the overview images; 50 μm in the magnified images. IHC scoring of PA2G4 in 116 pairs of HCC tissues (E2). IHC scoring of PA2G4 in HCC with (n = 4) or without extrahepatic metastasis (n = 112) (E3). F Representative images of IHC analysis for PA2G4 in HCC with (n = 38) or without (n = 19) extrahepatic metastasis in the following-up period (F1). Scale bar, red bar, 20 μm. IHC scoring of PA2G4 in each group (F2). G Kaplan–Meier analyses of overall survival time and recurrence-free survival in HCC patients with different protein expression of PA2G4. Data was shown as Mean ± SD. Two-tailed Student t test for (A, D2, E2, E3 and F2); Log rank test for (B, C and G). *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01. TPM: transcripts per million; HCC: hepatocellular carcinoma; T: liver tumor; N: adjacent non-tumorous liver tissue; IHC: immunohistochemistry