Table 1.
Clinicopathological characteristics of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).
Fig 1.
The concept of TLN in EV capture and target mRNA detection, a 24-well TLN biochip and representative TLN-TIRF images (100X).
Fig 2.
Comparison of qRT-PCR and newly developed TLN assay.
(A) Comparable qRT-PCR (200 μl plasma) and TLN (20 μl plasma) assay results on GAPDH levels in plasma EVs. (B) Results of different AFP molecular beacons detecting different locations of AFP mRNA fragments and no significant difference was found among different AFP molecular beacons (P>0.5).
Fig 3.
(A) Repeatability of well-to-well and (B) chip-to-chip in TLN assay. (C) EV-mRNA and (D) protein stability comparison between fresh blood samples and samples after 3-year storage. No significant difference (P>0.5) was observed in the repeating experiments.
Fig 4.
Median expression levels of EV AFP and GPC-3 mRNA are significantly higher in HCC patients than in healthy controls.
(A) Representative TLN-TIRF images (80 × 80 μm) (100X) of EV AFP and GPC-3 mRNA expression in a HCC patient and a healthy donor plasma samples. (B) Dot charts of EV AFP and GPC-3 mRNA expression in HCC patient and healthy donor plasma samples. (C) Scatter plots of plasma AFP protein vs. EV GPC-3 mRNA, EV AFP mRNA vs. EV GPC-3 mRNA, and plasma AFP protein vs. EV GPC-3 mRNA between HCC patients and healthy donors.