Fig. 1

PLOD3 is highly expressed in colon cancer liver metastasis and is correlated with low survival rates. A The heatmap showed that we identified a panel of significantly different genes in liver metastasis tissues and primary CRCs by RNA sequencing. B The expression difference of PLOD3 was further validated in tissue samples by RT-qPCR analysis. C, D The expression and quantification of PLOD3 were further validated in CRC and para-carcinoma tissue samples by immunohistochemical staining assay. Scale bars, 20 μm (400 ×), were shown in the right corner of each picture. Graphical illustration of statistical PLOD3 distribution in CRC and liver metastasis patients. E, F The western blot and RT-qPCR analysis further confirmed that CRC tumor tissues and cell lines. G PLOD3 was also highly expressed in the tumor compared to adjacent tissue in the TCGA dataset. H High PLOD3 expression was associated with low survival of patients. I Comprehensive analysis of PLOD3 expression in public microarray profiling datasets from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database (GES41258, Mann–Whitney test; GES68468 paired t-test; GSE41568 paired t-test). Data are shown as the mean ± SEM (three independent experiments). *P < 0.05; **P < 0.01; ***P < 0.001)