Fig. 4

Differential transcription of genes encoding the glycosyltransferases involved in the biosynthesis of HS and CS chains. a, b Relative transcript abundance of mRNAs for enzymes involved in the synthesis of the tetrasaccharide gycan linker, the initiation and elongation of HS chains, and the initiation and elongation of CS chains. Relative abundance for healthy tissues (gray bars) and tumors (black bars) are plotted on a log scale for each gene assayed and the spreads represent standard deviations. Genes that display significant differences in their transcription levels are highlighted. a Non-metastatic CRCs. 1: xylosyltransferase I (p < 0.01); 2: xylosyltransferase II (p = 0.017); 3: xylosylkinase (p = 0.017); 4: beta-1,3-glucuronyltransferase 1 (p = 0.018); 5: exostosin glycosyltransferase 1 (p = 0.01); 6: chondroitin sulfate N-acetylgalactosaminyltransferase 1 (p = 0.018); 7: chondroitin sulfate N-acetylgalactosaminyltransferase 2 (p = 0.011); 8: chondroitin sulfate synthase 1 (p = 0.01); 9: chondroitin sulfate synthase 3 (p = 0.01). b Metastatic CRCs. 4: beta-1,3-glucuronyltransferase 1 (p = 0.018); 10: chondroitin polymerizing factor (p = 0.043). c Relative expression ratio of genes that showed statistically significant differences in expression in non-metastatic (●) or metastatic (■) CRCs. Values on the Y axis are represented on a logarithmic scale