Figure 2

PLAUR mRNA expression correlates inversely with patient survival in cases of glioblastoma that demonstrate a mesenchymal gene expression signature. (A) Relative PLAUR mRNA expression is shown for glioblastomas previously characterized as: mesenchymal (Mes); proneural (PN); neural (N) and classical (C) (***p < 0.001; **p < 0.01; one way ANOVA with Tukey’s post hoc test). (B) Distribution of glioblastomas into the four subtypes is compared when 151 cases are stratified according to PLAUR mRNA expression as follows: 25% of the cases with the lowest level of PLAUR mRNA expression; 25% of the cases with the highest level of PLAUR mRNA expression; 10% of the cases with the highest level of PLAUR mRNA expression and; 5% of the cases with the highest level of PLAUR mRNA expression. (C) Silhouette plot showing correlations between PLAUR expression and 685 genes that serve as biomarkers of the four glioblastoma subtypes. The plot is a condensed series of bar graphs corresponding with ascending Pearson r-values for each subtype. Regions above the x-axis demonstrate a positive correlation. Regions below indicate a negative correlation. (D) Analysis of patient survival as a function of PLAUR mRNA expression in glioblastoma cases classified as mesenchymal (Mes). Kaplan-Meier patient survival curves were generated comparing 25% of the cases in which the tumors demonstrated the highest PLAUR mRNA expression levels with 25% of the cases in which the tumors demonstrated the lowest PLAUR mRNA expression levels. Statistical significance was determined by Log-rank test.