(A) Scatter plot of the total fucosylation degree of haptoglobin N-glycans in healthy subjects and cirrhosis and HCC patients
induced by HBV, HCV, and ALC, respectively. The total fucosylation
levels are distinctly elevated in HCC and cirrhosis patients compared
to that in healthy controls. The elevated fucosylation degree can
discriminate HCC from cirrhosis patients induced by HBV infection
(p < 0.01) or alcohol abuse (p < 0.01), but it cannot do so in the HCV-related HCC and cirrhosis
cases. (B) Scatter plot of the bifucosylation degree of haptoglobin N-glycans in cirrhosis and HCC patients of each etiology,
which shows a significantly increased bifucosylation level in HCC
of all etiologies compared to that in the corresponding cirrhosis.
Notably, the bifucosylation level is distinctly elevated in all HBV-related
HCC patients compared to that in HBV-related cirrhosis in this sample
set (p < 0.0001), suggesting good diagnostic power
of bifucosylation degree in discriminating these liver diseases. (C,
D) Receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curves of the total fucosylation
degree (C) and bifucosylation degree (D) to differentiate HCC from
cirrhosis cases induced by HCV and ALC, respectively (*, p < 0.05; **, p < 0.01; ***, p < 0.001; ****, p < 0.0001).