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. 2017 Jul 20;6(11):e1353860. doi: 10.1080/2162402X.2017.1353860

Figure 1.

Figure 1.

PD-L1 protein expression is elevated in PNI+ GDNF-positive tumor specimens (A) PD-L1 and GDNF mRNA levels in normal tissues or HNSCC samples according to TCGA database. (B) PD-L1 mRNA expression in GDNF-positive or GDNF-negative tumor specimens according to TCGA database. (C) PD-L1 protein expression is significantly correlated with GDNF in HNSCC specimens (Pearson r = 0.38, p< 0.001). (D) IHC assays were performed to detect PD-L1, GDNF and PGP9.5 (nerve marker) in HNSCC PNI samples. IHC staining and H&E staining indicated that tumor cells were morphologically present within and around the peripheral nerve (labeled with “N”). PD-L1 was expressed in tumor cells around the nerve, while GDNF was detected in the nerve. (E) The PD-L1 staining scores in tumor cells around peripheral nerve (PNI+) compared with tumor cells without PNI in matched specimen (p < 0.001). (F) Kaplan–Meier analyses of the overall survival Indicated that patients with a high level of GDNF were associated with a significantly lower overall survival rate than patients with a low level of GDNF expression (p < 0.001).