Figure 2

Serum TGFBI levels in carcinoma patients before and after treatment. (A) Reduced serum TGFBI levels in carcinoma patients after treatment. Serum TGFBI levels were measured in a cohort of patients with 4 types of gastrointestinal tract carcinomas. Serum TGFBI levels from a different cohort with the same 4 types of cancers were quantified after treatments (i.e., tumorectomy, chemotherapy, or irradiation). The results are scatter- plotted in A, with each dot or triangle representing mean serum TGFBI titre of a patient. The horizontal bars denote group medians. The numbers of patients in each category and carcinoma type are indicated. Serum TGFBI levels in non-tumor patients were included as controls. **: Statistically significant differences (p < 0.01) between pre- and post-treatment cohorts (2-tailed Student’s t test). (B) Reduced serum TGFBI levels in a self-controlled cohort of carcinoma patients. Serum TGFBI levels of 7 carcinoma patients (1 with cholangiocarcinoma, 3 with hepatocellular carcinomas, and 3 with pancreatic carcinomas) were measured before and after treatments (tumorectomy, chemotherapy and irradiation) and plotted. Levels after treatment were significantly lower than before treatment (**: p < 0.01; 2-tailed Student’s t test). (C) Elevated TGFBI expression in certain gastrointestinal tract carcinomas according to immunohistochemistry. Cryosections of human holagiocarcinoma, pancreatic carcinoma, hepatocarcinoma and gastric carcinoma (left column) were stained with anti-TGFBI Ab and TGFBI signals are revealed in brown. Insets with higher magnification show intracellular TGFBI staining. Normal tissues from these human organs were used as controls (right column).