Fig. 1: STX2 upregulation was associated with CRC metastasis and a poorer clinical outcome.

a qPCR analysis of STX2 expression in the fresh human CRC tissues of 55 CRC cases and the matched adjacent normal tissues; STX2 expression was normalized to GAPDH and expressed relative to the matched adjacent normal tissues (2-ΔΔCт). b qPCR analysis of STX2 mRNA expression in the normal intestinal mucosa and in primary CRC with or without metastasis. Boundaries of boxes represent bounding of the boxes and stand for the lower and upper quartile. Lines within the boxes and whiskers represent median and extremum(maximum and minimum). c IHC analysis of STX2 protein expression in the normal intestinal mucosa and in primary CRC with or without metastasis. d, e Kaplan–Meier analysis of the influence of STX2 expression and LN metastasis on overall survival. **p < 0.01