Fig. 1

FOXM1 and KIF4A expression are elevated in HCC tissues. a, b Gene screening protocol for the bioinformatics analysis (a) and Venn diagram of differentially expressed genes (b) in the HCC cohort of TCGA and GEO datasets. c Heat map of genes extracted from the bioinformatics analysis (combined effects). d Western blotting analysis of FOXM1 and KIF4A expression in seven pairs of randomly selected HCC and matched adjacent non-tumor tissues. C, carcinoma tissue; N, matched adjacent non-tumor tissue. e HE staining and immunohistochemical detection of FOXM1 and KIF4A expression in a representative HCC and matched adjacent normal liver tissue samples. Subcellular locations of FOXM1 and KIF4A are indicated by red arrows. f FOXM1 and KIF4A expression plotted based on immunohistochemical score. Statistical significance was analyzed with the Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed-rank test. g, h Kaplan-Meier curves were used to evaluate differences between HCC patients with negative/low and medium/high FOXM1 and KIF4A expression in terms of overall survival (g) and disease-free survival (h)