Fig. 1: Analysis of melanoma-derived patient samples reveals association of reduced NLGN4X expression with late disease stage and metastasis.
From: Late stage melanoma is hallmarked by low NLGN4X expression leading to HIF1A accumulation
a Representative tissue sections stained for NLGN4X of stage I, stage II, stage III and stage IV primary melanoma samples, normal skin tissue and melanoma metastasis. * = pigment, bars indicate 30 µm. b Overall scoring distribution for NLGN4X staining intensity in different clinicopathological groups. Scores of 0 and 1 were regarded as ‘low’ expression and are shown in blue colours, whereas scores of 2 and 3 were regarded as ‘high’ expression and are shown in red colours. Clinicopathological groups are plotted on the x-axis: primary tumour (t.) and metastasis, pathologic disease stage I–II and III–IV, pathologic tumour stage 1–3 (pT1-3) and 4 (pT4), pathologic lymph node stage 0 (pN0) and 1–2 (pN1-2). Staining was evaluated by grouping samples into high (red) and low (blue) NLGN4X expression and performing Fisher’s Exact Test (P values indicated in the graph). c Computer-generated NLGN4X intensity scores in primary tumour (Prim.) and metastases (Met.) and primary tumour samples of different pathologic disease stages, pathologic tumour (T) stages and pathologic lymph node (N) stages (see also Fig. S1B-E). Data presented as mean (±SEM), an independent (unpaired) t-test was used for statistical comparisons. d Kaplan Meier plot of patients with low and high NLGN4X expression from the dataset GSE19234 (n = 22/group). The P value of the log-rank test is provided within the graph. * = P < 0.05, ** = P < 0.001.
