TREM2 acts as a tumor suppressor in hepatocellular carcinoma by targeting the PI3K/Akt/β-catenin pathway

a TREM2 expression in THLE-3 and six hepatoma cells. Left panel: Compared with that in the normal liver cell line THLE-3, TREM2 expression was obviously decreased in hepatoma cells. Right panel: Compared with that in hepatoma cells with low metastatic potential, TREM2 expression was obviously decreased in hepatoma cells with high metastatic potential. Quantification of western blotting data was from three separate experiments. b mRNA levels of TREM2 in 50 cases of paired liver tissue samples. Data were from a representative experiment carried out in triplicate. c Protein levels of TREM2 in 50 cases of clinical samples. Quantification of western blotting data was from three separate experiments. d TREM2 staining in tumor tissues and paired adjacent non-tumor liver tissues. Upper panel: Representative IHC staining pattern of TREM2. Lower panel: Scores of IHC staining of TREM2 in 250 samples. Scale bar, 50？μm. e Progressive reduce of TREM2 expression level in 40 cases of non-tumor liver tissue, primary HCC, and venous metastasis of the same case. Left panel: Typical patterns of TREM2 staining. Scale bar, 50？μm. NT, adjacent non-tumorous tissues; PT, primary tumor tissues; MT, metastatic tumor tissues. Right panel: Scores of immunochemistry staining of TREM2 expression. f Kaplan–Meier curve of overall survival (OS) for TREM2 expression. g Kaplan–Meier curve of time to progression (TTP) for TREM2 expression. **P？<？0.0