Fig. 1: WSX1 is highly expressed in normal hepatocytes, and its downregulation in HCC correlated with poor prognosis.

a Immunohistochemical (IHC) staining of WSX1 in a human normal tissue microarray (TMA, FDA662a). The images shown are representatives for results of 2 individuals. b IHC staining of WSX1 in HCC TMAs (BC03116a and HLiv-HCC180Sur-03), including human normal liver tissue (n = 17), NAT (n = 103, P < 0.0001 compared to normal liver tissue), and HCC (n = 130, P < 0.0001 compared to both normal liver tissue and NAT) samples. Statistical analysis results are based on quantification of the percentage of WSX1⁺ area in each TMA tissue core. c Comparisons of the overall survival of HCC patients between low (n = 47) and high WSX1 expression group (n = 43, P = 0.0034). Forty HCC patients in TMA BC03116a were excluded due to lack of survival data. d WSX1 expression levels among different tumor pathological grades in HCC patients, including NAT (n = 103), grade I (n = 21), grade II (n = 73, P = 0.0321 compared to grade I) and grade III (n = 34, P < 0.0001 compared to grade I and P = 0.0123 compared to gradeII). Quantification and statistical analysis results are shown on the right. Scale bars, 50 μm. Quantitative data are presented as mean ± SD. One-way ANOVA was used to calculate the P values. Tukey-Kramer multiple comparison test was used for pairwise comparisons in the ANOVA analysis. The survival curves were analyzed by the Kaplan–Meier method, and the log-rank test was used to compare overall survival between groups. All statistical tests were two-sided. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ****P < 0.0001. HCC hepatocellular carcinoma, NAT normal tumor-adjacent liver tissue. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.