Figure 4.

HRG deletion significantly affects inflammatory response. IHC analysis of F4/80 performed on paraffin-embedded HCC tumor masses and peri-tumoral tissue (A) from 12 wild-type mice (WT) or from 11 HRG knock-out mice (HRG^–/–). ImageJ software analysis was performed to evaluate the amount of positivity. The data are means ± SD of 11/12 animals per group. The boxes include the values within the 25th and 75th percentile, whereas the horizontal bars represent the medians. The extremities of the vertical bars (10th–90th percentile) comprise 80% of the values. Statistical differences were assessed by unpaired parametric t-test or Mann–Whitney non-parametric t-test. Original magnification as indicated (A). Relationship between HRG and F4/80 mRNA in HCCs from WT mice. The values represent the relative mRNA content. The correlation analysis was performed with Pearson r test (B). qPCR analysis of IL1β, IL6, IL12, TREM2, TGFβ, IL10, IL23A, and PDL-1 (C) transcripts performed in HCCs from 12 WT mice or from 11 HRG^–/– mice. The mRNA values are expressed as fold increase over control values after normalization to the TBP gene expression. The results are expressed as means ± SD. The boxes include the values within the 25th and 75th percentile, whereas the horizontal bars represent the medians. The extremities of the vertical bars (10th–90th percentile) comprise 80% of the values. Statistical differences were assessed by Student’s t-test or Mann–Whitney test for non-parametric values (C). ns, not significant.