Plexin domain-containing 1 may be a biomarker of poor prognosis in hepatocellular carcinoma patients, may mediate immune evasion

Figure 1 Expression levels of plexin domain-containing 1 in tumors. A: Differences in plexin domain-containing 1 (PLXDC1) expression in tumor and normal tissues in the The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) pancancer dataset; PLXDC1 expression was significantly higher in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cancer tissues than in paracancerous tissues; B and C: Unpaired and paired difference analysis of HCC in the TCGA database; PLXDC1 expression was significantly higher in HCC tissues than in normal tissues; D: Immunohistochemical staining analysis of 123 pairs of paraffin-embedded HCC samples showed higher PLXDC1 expression in HCC than in adjacent normal tissues; E: Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction assay of PLXDC1 gene expression in 8 pairs of HCC tissues as well as corresponding normal tissues showed higher PLXDC1 expression in HCC tissues than in normal tissues; F: Western blot assay comparing PLXDC1 gene expression in 8 pairs of HCC tissues and normal tissues with quantification data; PLXDC1 expression was higher in HCC tissues than in normal tissues; G: Kaplan-Meier analysis of the survival curves and scoring statistics of 123 HCC patients stratified by PLXDC1 expression; patients with high PLXDC1 expression had a lower survival rate than those with low expression. ^aP < 0.05; ^bP < 0.01; ^cP < 0.001; NS: Not significant. PLXDC1: Plexin domain-containing 1.