Fig. 2

TEX9 expression is associated with TNM stage in ESCC. a Western blot assay was performed to detect the TEX9 protein level in normal esophageal tissues and ESCC. Tubulin was used as an internal reference. Densitometry analysis was used to quantitate protein expression with Image J (bottom). b RT-qPCR was performed to detect the TEX9 mRNA level in normal esophageal tissues and ESCC. β-actin was used as an internal reference. c and d Correlations assessed by Spearman’s correlation between protein (Western blot) level of TEX9 and pN stage (c) or pT stage (d). e The TEX9 mRNA expression in each differentiation stage was also analyzed based on TCGA database. “ESCA” stands for esophageal carcinoma in TCGA database. (ns: no significance, *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001)