Figure 8. Elevated ATG4B expression was correlated with CCND1 expression in tumor specimens of colorectal cancer patients. (A) The ATG4B expression level in colorectal cancer was determined by immunohistochemistry, and the intensity score (IS) was categorized into 3 grades based on the ATG4B protein level (upper panel). ATG4B was only expressed in the cytoplasm of the colorectal tumor cells and not in the adjacent normal tissues (stroma and goblet cells, scored as 0). The ATG4B protein level in the tumor and adjacent normal cells is quantified in the lower panel (P < 0.001). (B) Representative tumor sections stained for ATG4B, CCND1, and MKI67 from 2 colorectal cancer patients were shown. (C) The Allred scoring system was employed to quantitate CCND1 and MKI67 protein level. The correlation between ATG4B and CCND1 or MKI67 expression was calculated through the Pearson χ² test. Twenty tissue samples from colorectal cancer patients were used to determine the expression and correlation. Scale bar: 200 μm.