Fig 1: mRNA and Protein Levels of TKT in HCC Cell Lines and HCC Tumor Samples. a The mRNA levels of TKT/TKTL1/TKTL2 in each of the metastatic HCC cells (HCCLM3, MHCC97H and MHCC97L) were compared to those in any of the non-metastatic cells (PLC/PRE/5, Huh7, Hep3B and HepG2) by real-time qPCR. The TKT level in each of the metastatic cells was significantly higher than any of the non-metastatic cells (*: p < 0.05). TKTL1 and TKTL2 were not detected in HCC cells. b Protein levels of TKT/TKTL1/TKTL2 in metastatic and non-metastatic HCC cells were validated by western blot analysis. c The association of TKT mRNA level with overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) of HCC patients in the cBioPortal database (TCGA-Liver-Cancer) by Kaplan–Meier analysis (p value from log-rank test). Left: OS data set; right: DFS data set. The partition was optimized by maximizing the risk groups algorithm. The split point was chosen where the minimum p value was obtained [39]. d The association of TKT protein level with OS and DFS of HCC patients (n = 285, Kaplan–Meier analysis, p value from log-rank test). Left: OS data set; right: DFS data set. The partition was determined by the median score of IHC in the tissue microarray. Representative immunostaining of TKT with high and low level are shown in the bottom panels. The partition was optimized by maximizing the risk groups algorithm. The split point was chosen where the minimum p value was obtained [39]