Fig. 1
Expression and localization of Oct4A in primary serous epithelial ovarian tumours. a Representative immunohistochemical staining of Oct4A in normal (n = 7), borderline (n = 5), grade 2 (n = 7) and grade 3 (n = 8) primary ovarian tumours. Positive Oct4A expression is indicated by intense nuclear staining. Images are set at 200x (top panels including negative controls) and 400x (bottom panels). Scale bars represent 10 μM. b Quantification of Oct4A staining using Image J software which recognizes total DAB intensity. Variations in staining were determined by subtracting the negative control DAB reading from the Oct4A DAB reading for each tissue sample. Data is presented as the mean ± SEM of Oct4A DAB staining intensity. Significance is indicated by *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01 or ***P < 0.001 as determined by One-way ANOVA using Dunnett’s Multiple Comparison post-test compared to normal ovarian epithelium tissue. c Oct4A mRNA expression in primary normal ovarian epithelium tissues (n = 6) and primary Grade 3 serous epithelial ovarian tumours (n = 11) was determined by qPCR analysis. Relative quantification of Oct4A mRNA expression is standardized to 18S housekeeping gene and normalized to normal ovarian epithelium tissues. Data is expressed as the mean ± SEM of log2 transformed data of samples performed in triplicate. Significant increase of Oct4A expression in Grade 3 serous EOC tumours is indicated by *P < 0.05 as determined by student's t-test. d qPCR analysis of Oct4A expression in tumour cells isolated from the ascites of chemonaive (n = 6) and recurrent (n = 6) serous EOC patients. Relative quantification of Oct4A mRNA expression was standardized to 18S housekeeping gene. Data is expressed as the mean ± SEM of Oct4A mRNA expression of each sample performed in triplicate. Significance is indicated by *P < 0.05 as determined by student's t-test