Fig. 1: Tenascin-c (TNC) was upregulated with an increase in the pathological grade of glioma and vasculogenic mimicry (VM) formation.

a Representative images of TNC expression in differently graded gliomas, as examined via immunohistochemistry. Scale bar = 100 μm. b Kaplan–Meier survival curve showing that TNC upregulation is correlated with poor prognosis in glioma patients (p < 0.001). c, d Analysis of ONCOMINE datasets show TNC mRNA upregulation in glioma (normal brain and grade II, III and IV; n = 23, 45, 31, and 81, respectively; Sun Brain Statistics dataset) and that patients with high TNC expression (n = 13) have a lower 5-year survival rate than those with low TNC expression (n = 413) (TCGA Brain Statistics dataset). e IHC results of VM vessels, endothelial cell-lined vessels, and TNC expression in patient-derived glioblastoma samples. The black arrows indicate endothelial cell-lined vessels; the red arrows indicate VM vessels (non-endothelial cell-lined and PAS-positive channels); TNC⁻ indicates TNC-negative glioma tissues; TNC⁺ indicates TNC-positive glioma tissues. Scale bar = 100 μm (upper), Scale bar = 50 μm (lower). f–h The Kaplan–Meier survival curves show that TNC upregulation and/or VM-positivity are associated with a poor prognosis (p < 0.05).