Increased extrinsic apoptotic pathway activity in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma following transarterial embolization

Figure 1 Relative intensity (ratio) of protein abundance of Bcl-2 to Bax in the study and control groups. Study: HCC post-TAE; Control: HCC. HCC: Hepatocellular carcinoma; TAE: Transarterial embolization.

Figure 2 Representative immunoblot and relative intensities of cleaved caspase-9 (A), cleaved caspase-3 (B), Fas (C) and cleaved caspase-8 (D) proteins in the study and control groups. β-actin was used as a loading control. The asterisk indicates a significant difference between the study (HCC post-TAE) and control (HCC) groups. HCC: Hepatocellular carcinoma; TAE: Transarterial embolization.

Figure 3 Representative sections of patients from the study (A-D) and control (E-H) groups after hematoxylin staining (negative control, A and E), caspase-9 immunostaining (B and F), caspase-8 immunostaining (C and G) or cleaved caspase-3 immunostaining (D and H). Study: HCC post-TAE; Control: HCC. Higher immunoreactivity of caspase-8 and cleaved caspase-3 stain was observed in the study group than in the control group. Magnification, 400 ×. HCC: Hepatocellular carcinoma; TAE: Transarterial embolization.