Figure 2.

Expression and cellular distribution of CAIX and CAXII in liver tissues. (A) Representative images of immunohistochemical staining for CAIX and CAXII in normal and matched non-tumor, tumor and peri-tumor liver tissues. Peri-tumor tissue was identified as areas adjacent to tumor nodules enriched in immune infiltrating cells. Membranous staining of CAIX was detectable in bile ductular cells in normal and non-tumor tissues and in malignant hepatocytes. CAXII was expressed in the cytoplasm of malignant hepatocytes. No positive staining was evident in the inflammatory cells infiltrating the peri-tumor areas. *Identifies tumor area in peri-tumor sections. Representative images with scale bars = 100 μm. (B) Confocal laser scanning micrographs of immunofluorescent staining with anti-CAXII (green), anti-β-catenin (red) and anti-calnexin (red) in formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded HCC tissues. Nuclei were stained with Toto-3 (blue). In the left panel, CAXII displays cytoplasmic expression without any co-localization with the membranous staining of β-catenin (red). In the right panel, the white triangle indicates the co-localization of CAXII and calnexin. Scale bars = 50 μm.