Fig. 4

Assessment of pathologic findings obtained at 6 h, 24 h, 72 h and 7 days after treatment in different groups and the semi-quantitative analysis of c-Met (A-B), IL-6 (C-D) and HIF-α (E-F). The expression of c-Met increased after RFA and reached the peak at 72 h (> 50% positive rate) in both direct RFA and indirect RFA groups. The expression of IL-6 increased after RFA in the indirect RFA group and it was significantly higher than the direct RFA group from 6 h to 72 h after treatment. The expression of HIF-α was higher in the indirect RFA group than the direct RFA group from 6 h to 24 h after RFA. The bar graph showed the percentage of positive cells among the direct RFA group (blue), indirect RFA group (red) and control group (grey) at different time points after RFA. **P < 0.001. The representative microphotographs were under 200 × magnification (A, C, E)