Figure 2: Clinical relevance of tumour IGF2 and stromal VEGF axis. | Nature Communications

Figure 2: Clinical relevance of tumour IGF2 and stromal VEGF axis.

From: Cancer cell-secreted IGF2 instigates fibroblasts and bone marrow-derived vascular progenitor cells to promote cancer progression

Figure 2

(a) Western blot showing expression of IGF2 in ESCC (T) and matched non-tumour specimens (N), as well as expression of VEGF and α-SMA in CAFs and matched NEF from 11 ESCC patients. (b) Graphs showing positive correlation between IGF2 expression in oesophageal tissue and expressions of VEGF (left panel) and α-SMA (right panel) in fibroblasts, respectively, in 11 pairs of ESCC and adjacent normal tissues. Correlation was assessed using Pearson’s rank correlation coefficient. (c) Comparison of serum IGF2 (left panel) and VEGF (middle panel) levels between healthy individuals (n=50) and ESCC patients (n=100); the data were pooled and a positive correlation was found between serum VEGF and IGF2 levels (n=150) (right panel) using unpaired t-test. (d) Gene expressions were further divided into high and low levels using median expression level as the cut-off point for survival analyses. Kaplan–Meier curves comparing survival outcome of ESCC patients (n=100) with high and low serum IGF2 levels (left panel), high and low serum VEGF levels (middle panel), and IGF2 High/VEGF High and IGF2 Low/VEGF Low levels (right panel); statistical significance was calculated by log-rank test.

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