In-Depth Characterization of Mass Spectrometry-Based Proteomic Profiles Revealed Novel Signature Proteins Associated with Liver Metastatic Colorectal Cancers

Figure 3

Differentially expressed proteins between different sample groups. For normal colon (N) and localized CRCs (T), volcano plot (a) revealed 66 significant proteins; these proteins were further clustered and presented in heat map (b), with 38 upregulated and 28 downregulated proteins in T (principal component analysis). (c) Using identified significant proteins showed very good separating power on PC1 dimension to distinguish normal (N) and cancer (T) tissues. Similar analysis was performed between normal colon (N) and metastatic CRC (M), with 120 significant proteins prioritized from volcano plot (d), in which 46 proteins were upregulated and 74 proteins were downregulated in M (e); very good separation between N and M on PC2 dimension was achieved using 120 significant proteins.

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