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. 2016 Sep 6;7(43):70303–70322. doi: 10.18632/oncotarget.11854

Figure 1. NTS/NTR1 co-expression was correlated with aggressive phenotype and poor clinical outcome of HCC.

Figure 1

a. NTS and NTR1 were exclusively expressed in HCC cancer cells rather than normal adjacent tissues. The proliferation marker Ki67 and the metastasis marker MMP9 as well as some EMT-related proteins, such as E-cadherin, N-cadherin, β-catenin, and Vimentin, were compared between NTS+NTR1+ and non-NTS+NTR1+ samples using IHC. Significant upregulation of MMP9 and multiple EMT markers, but not Ki67 protein was found in NTS+NTR1+ samples compared with those in non-NTS+NTR1+ samples. Decreased expression of E-cadherin and increased expression of N-cadherin on the cytomembrane and accumulation of β-catenin in the cytoplasm were found in the NTS+NTR1+ samples. No significant difference of Vimentin was identified. b. The survival analysis of HCC patients on the basis of the NTS and NTR1 expression was performed using Kaplan-Meier method and log-rank test. NTS exerted a significant influence on the OS of HCC patients, in which NTS+ patients suffered from shorter OS than NTS− patients did, but no significant difference of OS was observed between NTR1+ and NTR1− patients. NTS+NTR1+ patients exhibited a shorter OS of 25.36 ± 4.53 m (P = 0.020) and a higher death risk at an expected hazard ratio (HR) of 2.755 (P = 0.003) than the other patients did.