Association of FAL score and methylation status of repetitive DNA and TSG promoter in HCCs.

<p>Comparisons of FAL score (%) between HCCs with significant or slight hypomethylation at repetitive DNA (A, C), and between tumors with extensive or limited hypermethylation at TSG promoter (B, D) in well-differentiated and moderately/poorly differentiated HCCs. ‘Well-diff.’ denotes well-differentiated tumors and ‘Mod/Poor diff.’ denotes moderately/poorly differentiated tumors. Tumors were classified as having significant or slight hypomethylation following hierarchical clustering analysis of methylation levels at three repetitive DNA sequences (Alu, LINE-1 and SAT2: <b><a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0072312#pone.0072312.s002" target="_blank">Figure S2A, S2C</a></b>). Similarly, tumors were classified as having extensive or limited TSG hypermethylation following hierarchical clustering analysis of methylation levels at 12 TSGs/MINT loci that are frequently involved in HCC (<b><a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0072312#pone.0072312.s002" target="_blank">Figure S2B, S2D</a></b>). n = number of FAL scores in each group. Box and whisker plots denote 75% and 95% distribution; lines in the boxes denote median values; diamonds and lines within the diamonds indicate the mean and 95% CIs, respectively. *, <i>p</i> = 0.0011 by Student’s <i>t</i>-test and <i>p</i> = 0.0015 by Wilcoxon rank-sum test; **, <i>p</i> = 0.0089 by Student’s <i>t</i>-test and <i>p</i> = 0.0270 by Wilcoxon rank-sum test.