Figure 1

Analysis of MACC1 expression in liver tissues and cell lines. A: MACC1 expression in four human hepatoma cell lines (HepG2, SMMC-7721, MHCC-97H, and MHCC-97L) and one normal liver cell line, L-02, by reverse-transcription PCR (RT-PCR). B: Representative MACC1 mRNA expression in hepatocellular carcinomas (T) and matching non-cancerous (NT) and normal non-cirrhosis (N) liver tissue using RT-PCR. An RT-negative control (-) was added to rule out false positives resulting from contaminated DNA. Products of 136 bp were expected for MACC1 transcripts. C: Comparison of MACC1 expression levels in five liver cell lines, as determined by real-time quantitative-PCR (Q-PCR). D: Comparison of MACC1 expression levels in 20 normal liver tissues (N), and 128 paired HCC with matching non-cancerous (NT) specimens by Q-PCR. The differences among HCC tissues (median 1.632), the adjacent non-cancerous tissues (median 0.601), and normal tissues (median 0.218) are significant (P = 0.009, P = 0.008, respectively), and no significant difference was found between the adjacent non-cancerous and normal tissues (P = 0.136).