Fig. 1

LNMAT1 overexpression is associated with poor prognosis for bladder cancer. a, b Unsupervised hierarchical clustering of the lncRNAs differentially expressed in MIBC tissues and paired normal adjacent tissues NAT (a) and in LN-positive and LN-negative bladder cancer tissues (b). The pseudocolor represents the intensity scale of MIBC tissues vs. NAT or the LN-positive vs. LN-negative bladder cancer tissues, generated by a log₂ transformation (fold changes > 5.0, p < 0.01). c Schematic representation of LNMAT1 upregulation in MIBC tissues and LN-positive tissues. d qRT-PCR analysis of LNMAT1 expression in a 266-case cohort of freshly collected human bladder cancer samples and NATs. The nonparametric Mann–Whitney U-test was used. e, f Correlation of LNMAT1 expression in bladder cancer tissues (n = 266) assessed by qRT-PCR with pathological grade (e) and LN status (f). The nonparametric Mann–Whitney U-test was used. g Comparison of LNMAT1 expression in primary human bladder cancer samples and paired metastatic LNs. The nonparametric Mann–Whitney U-test was used. h, i Kaplan–Meier curves for OS (h) and DFS (i) of bladder cancer patients with low vs. high expression of LNMAT1. The median LNMAT1 expression was used as the cutoff value. j‚ k Representative images (j) and percentages (k) of the ISH of LNMAT1 expression (blue) in the paraffin-embedded NAT and tumor sections of bladder cancer with or without LN metastasis (n = 266). Samples were counterstained with nuclear fast red. The scramble probe was used as a negative control. Statistical significance was assessed by χ² test. Scale bars: 50 μm. The error bars represent standard deviations of three independent experiments. *p < 0.05 and **p < 0.01