Fig. 5: Correlation analysis of MCM7 and clinical grading in patients.

a Representative examples of IHC staining of MCM7 (left) in HCC patients (n = 76). Quantitative analysis of the immunohistochemical expression of MCM7 (the number of MCM7 nuclear staining-positive cells/total cell number) in paired HCC tissues compared with the corresponding nontumor (NT) tissues (right). P < 0.0001, by paired t-test (two-sided). Bars, 100 μm. b A fold change (HCC/NT) plot (left) and a pie chart (right) of patient based on total MCM7 expression from HCC tissue arrays. c A log₂ (HCC/NT) plot based on the ratio of nucleic MCM7 expression to total MCM7 expression. d, e Representative examples of IHC staining of MCM7 in HCC tissues at the indicated clinical grade (d). Bars, 100 μm. e The difference in percentage of MCM7 nuclear staining between the grade I-II/II, II-III, and III-IV groups of HCC patients (P = 0.0005, Fisher’s exact test). Weak nuclear staining: Integrated optical density (IOD) SUM of nuclear MCM7/IOD SUM of total MCM7 <30%; extensive nuclear staining: IOD SUM of nuclear MCM7/IOD SUM of total MCM7 >30%. f Immunofluorescence analysis of expression of ALB and CK18 in isolated primary HCC cells (left). Bars, 50 μm. g WB analysis of MCM7 expression in primary HCC cells treated with 3.6 μM of ATO