Fig. 2

The expression and methylation status of IGFBPL1 in human esophageal dysplasia and ESCC. a Pearson correlation coefficient between IGFBPL1 methylation and expression of each CpG site. b Scatter plots showing the methylation status of the 4th (cg16918846) CpG sites, which are correlated with loss or reduced IGFBPL1 expression in 186 cases of ESCC tissue samples. ***p < 0.001. c Representative methylation results of IGFBPL1 in normal esophageal mucosa (NE), esophageal dysplasia (ED), and esophageal cancer (EC). The frequency of IGFBPL1 methylation was analyzed by chi-square test. d Representative IHC staining of IGFBPL1 in esophageal cancer (right panels) and adjacent tissue (left panels). Upper panels, × 200; lower panels, × 400. e The IGFBPL expression score is shown as a block diagram; the horizontal line represents the median score; the bottom and top of the box represent the 25th and 75th percentile, respectively; and the vertical bar chart indicates the scope of the data. There were significant differences in the expression of IGFBPL1 in adjacent tissues and cancer tissues in 70 cases of esophageal cancer. ***p < 0.001. f The expression of IGFBPL1 and DNA methylation status is shown as a bar diagram. Reduced or lost expression of IGFBPL1 was significantly associated with promoter region hypermethylation. ***p < 0.001