Figure 4

Gene expression in metastatic (N+) and non metatastic (N0) tumors. Expression of BST2, MFAP2, KRT31 and GNA15 was determined by real-time PCR in (A) 26 pairs of larynx tumors and matched normal tissues (15 N0 and 11 N+) and (B) 36 pairs of tongue tumor and matched normal samples (18 N+ and 18 N0). Relative quantitation of target gene expression for each sample was calculated according to Pfaffl [22]; GAPDH was used as the internal reference and normal sample as the calibrator. Values were Log2 transformed (y-axis) so that all values below -1 indicate down-regulation in gene expression while values above 1 represent up-regulation in tumor samples compared to normal samples. Differences in gene expression between groups (N0 and N+) were calculated by unpaired t test using GraphPad prism software and were considered statistically significant at P < 0.05 (*). The error bar represents the mean ± S.E.M (standard error of the mean).