Fig. 1

DNA methylation levels for four candidate genes detected by quantitative methylation-specific polymerase chain reaction (qMS-PCR) in 96 cervical scrapings. a DNA methylation levels are displayed as the difference in crossing point (ΔCp) values for each candidate gene. Dot plots indicate the distribution of ΔCp values for BHLHE22, CDO1, HAND2, and TBX5. Horizontal bars in the middle of the scattered dots indicate the average methylation levels. The lower the Cp values, the higher the gene methylation status. P values were calculated using the Kruskal–Wallis test. b Area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC-ROC) for the DNA methylation status of the four candidate genes in cervical scrapings. P values were < 0.001 for all analyses, and ≤ 0.5 for the comparison of AUC-ROCs