Fig. 3

Altered expression of the candidate genes in HCC tissues. a Schematic of the first five exons and two TSSs of SMAD6 together with the site of the DMR. Methylation levels of CpGs within the DMR in HCC and non-tumor samples are displayed. b RT-PCR results of SMAD6 variant 2 in 8 pairs of HCC and non-tumor samples used in the promoter-targeted LHC-BS study. Patient IDs are shown on the x-axis. Data are representative of three similar experiments and displayed as mean ± SD. *P value <0.05; **P value <0.01, as evaluated using Student’s t test. c All 8 pairs of HCC samples were further validated for the protein expression of candidate genes, including IFITM1, CHST4, and TBX15, by Western blot analysis (N non-tumor tissue, T tumor). Patient IDs are shown above each panel. d Relative protein expression levels of IFITM1, TBX15, and CHST4 were normalized against actin and depicted graphically. The results are representative of three independent experiments