Fig. 4

TMEM240 mRNA expression levels are affected by DNA methylation and are associated with cancer-specific survival. a The box plot of TMEM240 mRNA expression levels in tissues. b Representative figure of the TMEM240 mRNA expression level determined by RT-qPCR in 10 adjacent normal colon tissues, nine polyps of tubular adenomas, and 10 colorectal carcinoma (CRC) tumors. c Kaplan-Meier survival curves were used to compare cancer-specific survival between CRC patients with low and those with high TMEM240 mRNA expression. TMEM240 was considered to have low expression when the expression level in CRC tumors was 5-fold lower than that in normal tissues. d Scatterplot of the fold change of TMEM240 DNA methylation and mRNA expression levels in CRC tumors normalized to the adjacent normal tissues. e DNA methylation and mRNA expression were measured after treatment with decitabine (DAC). Fold changes in DNA methylation after treatment with DAC (left panel). Fold changes in TMEM240 mRNA expression after treatment with DAC (right panel). Data are presented as the mean ± SD, **p ≤ 0.01, ***p ≤ 0.001. A t test was used to calculate group differences in all experiments. Experiments were performed with at least two biological duplicates and three technical replicates