Prognostic relevance of circulating CK19 mRNA in advanced malignant biliary tract diseases

Figure 1 Gene expression levels of cytokeratin 19 and human telomerase reverse transcriptase in RMCCA1 cells (as measured by quantitative real time polymerase chain reaction). A: Amplification plot of cytokeratin (CK)19 mRNA from 10 000 RMCCA1 cells. (a) 1000 RMCCA1 cells; (b) amplification plot of human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) mRNA from 10 000 RMCCA1 cells; (c) 1000 RMCCA1 cells; and (d) are demonstrated; B: SYBR Green melting curve for quantitative real time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). The melting curves from quantitative real time PCR for CK19 (a) and hTERT (b) consistently gave a single peak with no evidence of non-specific amplification or primer-dimerisation.

Figure 2 The distribution levels of cytokeratin 19 and human telomerase reverse transcriptase genes in the peripheral blood of 40 patients. The positive value is determined as a fold change in gene expression of more than 1.5 times relative to the calibrator.

Figure 3 Kaplan-Meier survival curves of patients with positive or negative expression of cytokeratin 19 (A) and human telomerase reverse transcriptase (B) genes measured in the peripheral blood. CK19: Cytokeratin 19; hTERT: Human telomerase reverse transcriptase.