Figure 6: 11β-HSD1/11β-HSD2 ratio is associated with overall survival and relapse in patients with hepatocarcinoma.

(a) The inverse relationship of 11β-HSD1 and 11β-HSD2 in hepatocarcinoma. The embedded human hepatocarcinoma tissues (n=58) were immunohistochemically stained with anti-11β-HSD1 or 11β-HSD2 antibody. The relative expression of 11β-HSD1 and 11β-HSD2 was determined by the density mean analysed by Image-Pro Plus software. (b) The Kaplan–Meier method was used to analyse the overall survival for 58 liver cancer patients with high or low 11β-HSD1/11β-HSD2 ratio. (c) The 11β-HSD1/11β-HSD2 ratios were used to analyse their correlation with the relapse of patients with hepatocarcinoma. (d) Comparison of the 11β-HSD1/11β-HSD2 ratio between high group (n=29) and low group (n=29). (e) Levels of endogenous GCs are not altered in patients with hepatocarcinoma. Plasma derived from hepatocarcinoma patients (n=12), normal donors (n=12) and portal hypertension patients without hepatocarcinoma (n=12) was used to determine the levels of GCs with a kit. In the box and whisker plots, the box contains 50% of the data. Twenty-five per cent of the data are greater than the top of the box and 25% of the data are less than the bottom of the box. The line in the box represents the median.