Fig 2: The relative abundance of PGRMC1 compared between RCTs and PKTs.The SILAC ratios of ß-actin with isotope labeling peptides “EITALAPSTMK” (m/z 582.86/581.33, 2+) respectively from the group of protein mixture composed of PKTs and HEK293 cells (A), another group of protein sample containing RCTs and HEK293 cells (B). The isotope labeling peptides ‘GDQPAASGDSDDDEPPPLPR’ (m/z 1019.99/1018.49, 2+) from protein mixture containing PKTs and HEK293 cells (C), RCTs and HEK293 cells (D) were used to quantify PGRMC1 abundance. PGRMC1 concentration was validated between 3 RCTs and corresponding PKTs by western blotting (E). RCTs: renal cell carcinoma tissues; PKTs: para-cancerous kidney tissues.

Fig 3: Different staining level and protein distribution of PGRMC1 in RCTs (A-D) and PKTs (E-H). A negative, weak, moderate and strong staining pattern of PGRMC1 was respectively shown in RCTs (A-D) and PKTs (E-H). PGRMC1 mainly located in cytoplasm and cell membrane in RCTs as the arrow indicated (D). PGRMC1 was observed in the cytoplasm of the convoluted tubules in PKTs (H). The scale bar represented 100 µm (original magnification×400).

Fig 4: A statistically higher concentration of serum PGRMC1 from RCC patients.The average serum PGRMC1 concentration was higher in 18 RCC patients compared to 12 healthy persons (P<0.05) (A). The serum PGRMC1 concentration was related with the TNM stage of RCC (B). Serum PGRMC1 abundance was detected in three randomly selected RCC patients (C). C: a pool of sera from three healthy persons; P1-P3: the serum from 3 RCC patients. The total loading pretreated serum proteins were visualized by Ponceau-S staining to take as a comparison control.

Fig 5: Cell proliferation under the overexpression (A) or knockdown (B) of PGRMC1 in OS-RC-2 cells. Each experiment was performed in triplicate. Control: cells transfected with Flag-containing empty plasmids; Mock: cells without treatment; NC: the nonspecific siRNA sequences. * p < 0.05.