Figure 2.

Relative expression of TGF-β in patients with IPMN. Real-time RT-PCR was employed to measure the expression levels of TGF-β. The results are expressed in arbitrary units as a ratio of the target gene transcripts to TGF-β transcripts. Results are the mean ± SD, unpaired t-test. The TGF-β mRNA expression was significantly increased in patients with adenocarcinoma derived from branch duct-type IPMN compared with patients with borderline IPMN, and especially with adenocarcinoma derived from main duct-type IPMN (P=0.023). TGF-β, transforming growth factor-β; IPMN, intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm; RT-PCR, reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction.