Progesterone receptor membrane component 1 as a potential prognostic biomarker for hepatocellular carcinoma

Figure 1 Western blot analysis of PGRMC1 and PGRMC2 expression in 10 paired hepatocellular carcinoma tumor (T)/non-tumor liver (NT) samples (A). B: Progesterone level in HCC tissue samples and non-tumor liver tissue; C: A comparison of progesterone levels in HCC (T) and non-tumor liver (NT) tissue samples; D: Serum progesterone level in the corresponding HCC patients. ^bP < 0.01.

Figure 2 PGRMC1 and PGRMC2 expression levels, expressed as positive immunohistochemical staining percentages in the clinical cohort (A and B) and as normalized mRNA expression in the TCGA cohort (C-F). A: A comparison of PGRMC1 and PGRMC2 staining in HCC (T), non-tumor liver (NT) and normal liver (N) tissue samples; B: A comparison of PGRMC1 staining in HCC samples with different degrees of tumor differentiation; C: A comparison of PGRMC1 and PGRMC2 mRNA expression levels in HCC (T) and non-tumor liver (NT) samples; D: A comparison of PGRMC1 mRNA expression levels in HCC samples with different tumor grades; E: A comparison of PGRMC1 mRNA expression levels in HCC samples with different tumor stages; F: A comparison of PGRMC2 mRNA expression levels in HCC samples with different tumor grades. ^aP < 0.05, ^bP < 0.01, ^eP < 0.001.

Figure 3 Representative images of PGRMC1 immunohistochemical staining in hepatocellular carcinoma. A-C: Well-differentiated HCC; D-F: Moderately differentiated HCC; G-I: Poorly differentiated HCC. Note that higher PGRMC1 expression was observed in non-tumor liver tissue samples (NT) as compared to HCC tissue samples (T) (A, D and G) and a proportion of HCC cells showed loss of PGRMC1 staining in (E) (A, D and G: 40 ×; B, C, E, F, H, and I: 100 ×).

Figure 4 Kaplan-Meier analysis of the relationships of PGRMC1 and PGRMC2 expression with disease-free survival (DFS) in the clinical cohort (A-B) and TCGA cohort (C-D). ^aP < 0.05, ^eP < 0.001.

Figure 5 Alpha-fetoprotein and glypican-3 expression in PGRMC1-knockdown HepG2 and Hep3B cells and PGRMC1-overxpressing PLC/PRF/5 and Huh7 cells (A). B: The correlation of PGRMC1 with AFP and GPC3 in HCC tissue samples in the TCGA cohort; C: Cell proliferation assay (XTT) of PGRMC1-knockdown HepG2 and Hep3B cells and PGRMC1-overxpressing PLC/PRF/5 and Huh7 cells. The experiment was performed in triplicate. ^aP < 0.05, ^bP < 0.01, ^eP < 0.001. AFP: Alpha-fetoprotein; GPC3: Glypican-3.