Fig. 1

Strong infiltration of TIM-1⁺B cells is correlated with advanced disease stage and poor survival in patients with HCC. a-b TIM-1 expression on CD19⁺ B cells isolated from PBMCs from HCC patients (n = 51) and healthy donors (n = 30) was determined by flow cytometry. a One representative experiment is shown. B The data are represented as the mean ± s.e.m. C TIM-1⁺B cells from tumor tissue were compared to those from paired PBMC samples and peritumoral liver samples (n = 51). d-g The associations of tumor-infiltrating TIM-1⁺B cells with patient TNM staging (n = 20 for stage I and II, n = 31 for stage III and IV) and microvascular invasion (n = 22 for positive, n = 29 for negative) are shown. d and f One representative experiment is shown. h Patients were divided into two groups (Low/High) according to the median value of the tumor TIM-1⁺ B cell percentages shown in C; statistical comparisons were performed with the log-rank test. i Representative immunohistochemical staining of TIM-1⁺ cells in HCC samples (n = 101) from the patients who were divided into two groups (low, ≤8 cells (n = 53); high,>8 cells (n = 48)) according to the median value of TIM-1 expression is shown. Cumulative OS and DFS times were calculated by the Kaplan–Meier method and analyzed by the log-rank test. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001 and ****P < 0.0001