Fig. 1

Upregulation of COL4A1 in HCC. a Box-whisker Plot indicated the mRNA expression profiles of 44 collagen genes in TCGA dataset. The gene name shown in red and blue illustrates the 27 upregulation genes and 4 downregulation genes in tumor tissues compared with normal liver tissues, respectively. b Expression of COL4A1 was significantly upregulated in HCC compared with normal liver tissues in 4 datasets, including Roessler Liver Statistics, Roessler Liver 2 Statistics, Wurmbach Liver Statistics, and Mas Liver Statistics. c mRNA levels of COL4A1 in paired HCC samples were detected by qRT-PCR (n = 89). Fold changes (C/N) were presented. C, cancerous tissues; N, noncancerous liver tissues. d The protein levels of COL4A1 in 10 paired cancerous tissues (C) and the matched adjacent noncancerous liver tissues (N) from HCC patients were analyzed by western blot. e COL4A1 proteins were highly expressed in HCC tissues. Immunohistochemistry staining of COL4A1 was performed in paired HCC samples and normal liver tissues (n = 24). The representative images were shown. f Expression levels of COL4A1 were measured by qRT-PCR and western blot in indicated HCC cell lines