Differential expression of QCR2, PHB, and p21 in normal cervical tissues and cervical cancer tissues. (a–c) Top panels: quantitative analysis of IHC staining for QCR2 (a), p21 (b), and PHB (c) using normal cervical tissues and cervical cancer tissues. Lower panels: representative IHC staining of normal and cervical cancer tissues for QCR2 (a), p21 (b), and PHB (c) (*p < .05, **p < .01, ***p < .001, student's t-test, scale bar = 50 μm). (d) IHC scores for QCR2 and p21 were used to test the inverse correlations between levels of p53 and QCR2 proteins using Pearson correlation tests. Pearson correlation: −0.335; significance: p < .001. (e) IHC scores for PHB and p21 were used to test the positive correlations between levels of p53 and PHB proteins using Pearson correlation tests. Pearson correlation: 0.250; significance: p < .001. (f) Representative IHC images showing that PHB was located to both the nucleus and the cytoplasm in normal cervical tissues but mainly to the cytoplasm in cervical cancer tissues (scale bar = 20 μm). (g–i) Summary of IHC results showing differential expression of QCR2 (g), PHB (h), and p21 (i) in normal tissues and cervical cancers with different FIGO clinical stages (***p < .001, student's t-test).