Fig 1.
PAX8 expression in normal and tumor thyroid tissues of PTC patients.
(A) Mean (SD) PAX8 mRNA levels found in normal thyroid tissuesamples (n = 18) and PTCs (n = 36), assessed by qPCR. (B-D) Representative images of immunohistochemical staining for PAX8 protein levels in (B) normal thyroid tissues; (C) PAX8-positive PTCs; and (D) PAX8-negative PTCs. (E) Mean H scores for immunohistochemical labeling of PAX8 protein in normal thyroid tissues (12 samples) and PTC (38 samples).
Table 1.
Expression of putative PAX8 target genes in the 36 PTCs.
Fig 2.
Putative PAX8 target genes whose mRNA levels were most strongly correlated with those of PAX8 in PTCs Levels of mRNA for ATP1B1 (A) and KCNIP3 (B) are plotted against PAX8 mRNA levels measured in 31 CT-PTCs (•) and 5 FV-PTCs (○). R and p values were calculated with the Spearman rank correlation test.
Table 2.
Expression of putative PAX8 target genes in the 36 PTCs stratified by ATA risk and BRAF mutational status.
Fig 3.
PCA of PAX8 target genes displaying marked PTC-related dysregulation.
Analysis was performed with data for the four PAX8 target genes (LCN2, GPC3, KCNIP3, SCD1) that were most markedly dysregulated in PTCs (red diamonds) compared with normal thyroid (NT) tissues (green diamonds). (A) Our dataset (36 PTC and 18 NTs). (B) TCGA dataset (486 PTC and 59 NTs). PCA was performed with the built-in prcomp function in R software.
Fig 4.
Immunohistochemical detection of LCN2 and GPC3.
(A) LCN2 staining in normal thyroid. (B) LCN2 staining in PTC. (C) GPC3 staining in normal thyroid. (D) GPC3 staining in PTC. (E) Proportions of positive and negative samples in each tissue group.