Fig. 6

VIRMA promotes ICC proliferation and metastasis in vivo, and is correlated with poor prognosis of ICC patients. Knockdown of VIRMA effectively inhibited ICC subcutaneous tumor growth in nude mice (n = 5). a Gross images of ICC subcutaneous tumor. b In vivo fluorescence imaging of nude mice bearing ICC tumors. c The tumors were extracted and weighed after 4 weeks. d The tumor volume was monitored every other day, and tumor growth curves were generated. e Representative images of IHC staining for VIRMA protein of 110 ICC tumor tissues and their adjacent normal epithelium tissues. Scale bars, 100 μm. f The protein expression level of VIRMA was analyzed in 110 ICC tissues and their paired normal epithelium tissues through IHC staining. g The protein expression level of VIRMA was analyzed in ICC tissues and normal epithelium tissues of the TCGA dataset. ***p = 2.21E − 07. The two-tailed t-test in paired samples. The box boundaries correspond to the first and third quartiles; whiskers extend to a maximum of 1.5 × the interquartile range. h, i Kaplan–Meier method with a two-tailed log-rank test was used to plot overall survival (h) and disease-free survival (i) curves in human ICC specimens (n = 110) with high and low VIRMA expression. The log-rank test was used to compare the survival rate. j H&E and IHC staining with an antibody specific for VIRMA, E-cadherin, N-cadherin, Vimentin, VEGF, Ki67 and Cyclin D1 in sections of tumors. *P < 0.05 **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001