Stemness CD24 activation promotes hepatocellular carcinoma progression via an immune escape mechanism

Figure 3 Verification of dynamic clusters of differentiation 24 activation in rat hepatocarcinogenesis. A: Hematoxylin and eosin staining of control livers (a1); a2: Liver pathology at an early stage; a3: Liver pathology at the middle stage; a4: Liver pathology at a late stage; B: Clusters of differentiation (CD) 24 expression in control livers (b1); b2: CD24 expression at the early stage; b3: CD24 expression at the middle stage; b4: CD24 expression at the late stage; C: Programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression in control rat livers (c1); c2: PD-L1 expression at the early stage; c3: PD-L1 expression at the middle stage; c4: PD-L1 expression at the late stage; D: Dynamic CD24 mRNA expression during hepatocarcinogenesis; E: Dynamic PD-L1 mRNA expression during hepatocarcinogenesis. ^aP < 0.01. NC: Normal control; CD: Clusters of differentiation; H&E: Hematoxylin and eosin; PD-L1: Programmed death-ligand 1.