Figure 8.

Clinical significance of fibronectin, integrin-α₅, integrin-β₁ and their downstream signaling molecules in HCC tumors. (A) Representative IHC-staining images of fibronectin expression in adjacent tissues and HCC tumors from HCC patients (left) and violin plots of IHC scores from these 52 patients (right). (B) Representative images of microvascular invasion (MVI) events found by IHC-staining for fibronectin with high (≥3) and low (≤2) IHC scores. (C) Correlation of FN1 mRNA levels with the survival rate of HCC patients with MVI events in the KMplot dataset. (D to G) Representative IHC-staining images of integrin-α₅ expression (D), integrin-β₁ expression (E), paxillin expression (F), and Src expression (G) in adjacent tissues and HCC tumors from HCC patients (left), and violin plots of IHC scores from these 52 patients (right). Scale bars, 20 µm. Data are shown as medians and quartiles. Unpaired t test was performed. HR, hazard ratio. ** P<0.01, *** P<0.001, **** P<0.0001, and ns, not significant. (H to K) Correlation of ITGA5 (H), ITGB1 (I), PXN (J), and SRC (K) mRNA levels with the overall survival rate of HCC patients in the KMplot dataset.