Figure 1

SNAI2 /Slug mRNA is overexpressed in human gliomas and correlates with histologic grade and invasive phenotype. A) mRNA expression heatmaps for 30 migration/invasion-related transcription factors. Data shown was obtained from 20 primary human glioblastoma specimens (10 upper panel, 10 lower panel). Changes in glioblastoma gene expression are shown relative to mean expression values obtained from 7 non-tumor brain specimens. Heatmaps are ordered according to their degree of overexpression relative to non-tumor brain. B) mRNA microarray data for SNAI2 expression in 79 human glioma specimens. Data shown was obtained using 5 non-tumor brain specimens (NTB), 10 supratentorial ganglioglioma (GG) specimens, 15 low grade oligodendroglioma specimens (LGO), 15 low grade astrocytoma specimens (LGA), 7 anaplastic astrocytoma (AA) specimens and 32 glioblastoma (GBM) specimens. Intensity data is plotted on the y axis. SNAI2/Slug mRNA expression was elevated in glioblastomas compared to low grade astrocytomas (P < 0.006, t-test). C) Real-time PCR analysis of SNAI2/Slug mRNA expression in non-tumor brain (NB), low grade astrocytoma (LGA) and glioblastoma (GBM) specimens. D) Relative quantification of SNAI2/Slug mRNA expression using Real-time PCR in several human glioblastoma cell lines (U343, U251, T98, D566 and U87). Data from non-tumor brain specimens is shown for comparison.