Figure 7.

CXXC5 expression is elevated in breast cancer and positively correlated with tumor grade, corresponding to the low expression of TSC1.A, immunohistochemical staining for CXXC5, CUL4B, MTA1, and TSC1 in tissue arrays, including 21 grade II breast cancer samples and adjacent normal breast tissues. The representative images are presented, and positively stained nuclei were detected. The Image-Pro Plus software was used to calculate the mean staining intensity. B, immunohistochemical staining of CXXC5, CUL4B, MTA1, and TSC1 expression in tissue arrays, including 86 specimens of breast carcinoma, including grades I, II, and III. Representative images are presented, and positively stained nuclei were counted. Using Image-Pro Plus software, the mean staining intensity was calculated. The middle, upper, and lower three lines of the boxplot represent the mean, upper, and lower quartiles, respectively, of the relative intensity calculated from CXXC5, CUL4B, MTA1, and TSC1 staining scan analysis across all samples. ∗p < 0.05, ∗∗p < 0.01, and ∗∗∗p < 0.001. C, IHC analysis of the relative level of CXXC5 expression was plotted against that of CUL4B, MTA1, and TSC1. D, CXXC5 expression level in 11 cases of breast carcinoma and adjacent normal breast tissues was analyzed by RT–qPCR. Each bar represents the mean ± SD from triplicate biological experiments. ∗p < 0.05, ∗∗p < 0.01, and ∗∗∗p < 0.001. E, bioinformatics analysis of The Cancer Genome Atlas dataset for the expression of CXXC5 in normal and primary tumor samples. F, the relationship between CXXC5 expression level and breast cancer patients’ survival time was predicted by Kaplan–Meier survival analysis (https://tcga-data.nci.nih.gov/docs/publications/tcga/). IHC, immunohistochemical; qPCR, quantitative PCR; TSC1, tuberous sclerosis complex subunit 1.