Fig. 1

Recurrent reduction of ARID1A expression in hepatocellular carcinoma was associated with poor prognosis. a mRNA level of ARID1A was quantified with qPCR in 64 paired HCC (T) and nontumorous tissues (NT). Horizontal lines indicate the median of biological replicates. Significant differences between normal and cancer tissue were calculated by Student’s t-test (p < 0.01). b Immunohistochemistry of ARID1A (BAF250a) protein expression in HCC surgical specimens. Strong ARID1A-positive staining in normal tissue is shown in the right panel, whereas ARID1A-negative staining in HCC is presented in the middle panel. Red boxes in the left panel indicate the area enlarged in the middle and right panels. c The summary of the differences in the expression of ARID1A protein and mRNA between paired tumor and non-tumor liver tissues (right panel). d Kaplan–Meier survival curves of HCC patients (n = 64, all from Zhongshan Hospital of Xiamen University) after hepatectomy. Patients with low ARID1A expression had a significantly worse prognosis than those with high ARID1A expression (log-rank test, p = 0.042). e Endogenous expression of ARID1A was examined in HepG2, SK-Hep1, SMMC-7721, Huh7, LM3 and MHCC-97H cell lines by western blot. f Western blot analysis showed that ARID1A shRNA treatment markedly decreases its protein levels in Huh7 cells while plv cs2.0 plasmid transfection significantly enhanced ARID1A expression in MHCC-97H cells