Fig. 1. Acox2 loss induces HCC in mice.

A Percentage distribution of liver cancer was compared between Acox2^−/− (n = 21) and WT (n = 17) mice at the age of 8–9 months. B The representative image of HE stained cross-sections of liver tissue in Acox2^−/− and WT mice. Scale bar, 500 μm. C Three tumor lesions (I–III) from a single cross-section of Acox2^−/− mouse liver are boxed to show the enlarged region (IV–VI) as indicated. Scale bars, 100 μm in upper panel and 30 μm in bottom panel. D Staining was performed using HE and immunostaining against CD3, CD20, CD68, and CD138 on liver paraffin sections of Acox2^−/− or WT mice. Representative images were displayed as indicated. Scale bar, 100 μm. E Immunohistochemical staining of formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded section of mouse liver tissues using AFP antibody. Representative images were displayed as indicated. Scale bar, 20 μm. F, G ACOX2 expression level in humans is significantly downregulated in HCC than in normal liver specimens (fold-change = −3.193; p-value = 1.91 × 10⁻⁷) (F) and decreases gradually in malignant stage (III) when compared with the early stage (I) (p-value = 0.00096) (G) by analyzing data from TCGA portal. H, I Low ACOX2 expression in human HCC is correlated with a decrease in OS (overall survival, p-value = 0.036) (H) and DFS (disease free survival, p-value = 0.048) (I) when comparing to high ACOX2 expression as observed on analyzing data from TCGA portal.