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

Figure 4 Analysis of the immune microenvironment of plexin domain-containing 1 in hepatocellular carcinoma. A: Enrichment of differentially expressed genes between the high and low plexin domain-containing 1 (PLXDC1) expression groups in the hallmark pathway of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The results showed that genes upregulated in PLXDC1-high vs PLXDC1-low samples in HCC mainly regulate immune activation and inflammatory response through IL6-JAK-STAT3 signaling, IL2-STAT5 signaling, and inflammatory response; B: Analysis of immune cell infiltration and functional enrichment between the PLXDC1-high and PLXDC1-low groups in HCC; C: Differentially expressed genes between the PLXDC1-high and PLXDC1-low groups showed enrichment of the stromal signaling pathway in HCC; D-G: ESTIMATE algorithm to assess immune cell score (D), stromal score (E), tumor purity score (F), and immunotherapy effect evaluation (G) in high and low PLXDC1 expression groups in HCC; immune cell score, tumor mesenchymal score, and PD-L1 expression were significantly higher than those in the low expression group, while the tumor purity score showed the opposite trend. ^aP < 0.05; ^bP < 0.01; ^cP < 0.001. PLXDC1: Plexin domain-containing 1.