Fig. 7: LAPTM5 negatively correlates with BMPR1A and predicts lung metastasis of RCC.

a Representative IHC images for LAPTM5 in clinical sections of normal kidney tissue, primary RCC tissue, lung metastases (Lung met.), bone metastases (Bone met.) and brain metastases (Brain met.) from RCC patients. Scale bar, 100 μm. b IHC staining score of LAPTM5 in clinical primary RCC and organ metastases from RCC patients. Normal, n = 106 samples; Primary RCC, n = 150 samples; Lung met., n = 10 samples; Bone met., n = 22 samples; Brain met., n = 2 samples. c IHC images for BMPR1A in clinical sections [Serial section of (a)] of lung metastases (Lung met.), bone metastases (Bone met.) and brain metastases (Brain met.) from RCC patients. Scale bar, 100 μm. d Pearson correlation between LAPTM5 and BMPR1A levels in clinical RCC metastases. R, Pearson correlation coefficient; center line, mean of best-fit line; the shadow indicates 95% confidence interval. e IHC staining score of LAPTM5 in primary RCC patients with lung metastases (with lung met., n = 31 samples) and those without lung metastases (no lung met., n = 119 samples). f Univariate and multivariate analyses to determine risk factors associated with lung metastasis of RCC patients (n = 150 patients). Cl: confidence interval. Kaplan–Meier survival curves for overall survival (g) and metastatic-free survival (h) of patients with low and high LAPTM5 mRNA level in the TCGA KIRC cohort. i Schematic illustration of LAPTM5 promoting lung-specific metastasis of RCC. CQ, chloroquine; P, phosphorylated; U, ubiquitylated. In b and e, the data are presented as whisker plots: midline, median; box, 25–75th percentile; whisker, minimum to maximum values. Two-tailed Student’s unpaired t-test in (b) and (e). Source data are provided as a Source data file.