Figure 4.

The occurrence of the EMT in HCC correlated with portal vein tumor thrombus and promoted CTC formation. (a) The relative level of vimentin expression was negatively correlated with E-cadherin expression in HCC tumors (n=28, r=−0.604, P=0.001). (b) The relative level of twist expression was negatively correlated with E-cadherin expression in HCC tumors (n=28, r=−0.437, P=0.020). (c) The expression of E-cadherin in HCC tumors was significantly lower in patients with portal vein tumor thrombus (n=10) than in patients without portal vein tumor thrombus (n=18) (**P=0.007), vimentin and twist expression in HCC tumors was significantly higher in patients with portal vein tumor thrombus (n=10) than in patients without portal vein tumor thrombus (n=18) (***P<0.001, **P=0.004, respectively). There was no significant correlation between the expression of other transcriptional factors and portal vein tumor thrombus. (d) The expression of E-cadherin in HCC tumors was significantly lower in the CTC-positive patients (n=18) than in the CTC-negative patients (n=10) (*P=0.013). The expression of vimentin and twist in HCC tumor was significantly higher in CTC-positive patients (n=18) than in the CTC-negative patients (n=10) (*P=0.012, **P=0.009, respectively). The expression levels of the other transcriptional factors were not correlated with the positivity rate of CTCs