Fig. 1

PD1 and TIM3 expression on HCC infiltrating CD8⁺ cytotoxic T cells. a, Representative flow cytometric plots to show the expression of PD1 and TIM3 on CD8⁺ cytotoxic T cells from paired blood, peri-tumor and tumor tissues of HCC patients. b-d, Comparison of the frequencies of PD1⁺ among CD8⁺ T cells (b), PD1^Hi among CD8⁺ T cells (c) and PD1^Hi among CD8⁺PD1⁺ T cells (d) across paired blood, peri-tumor and tumor tissues of HCC patients (n = 30). e-f, Comparison of the frequencies of PD1^Hi among CD8⁺PD1⁺ T cells in relation to tumor stages (E, 11 stage I and 19 stage II and III) and tumor size (F, 8 tumor size≤5 cm and 19 tumor size> 5 cm) across paired blood, peri-tumor and tumor tissues of 11 stage I and 19 stage II and III HCC patients; and paired blood, peri-tumor tissue and tumor tissue from 8 tumor size≤5 cm and 19 tumor size> 5 cm HCC patients. Error bars indicated median with interquartile range. Significance was assessed by Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed rank test. *, P < 0.05; **, P < 0.01; ***, P < 0.001; and ****, P < 0.0001