Figure 8.

Elevated levels of USP48 are positively associated with the upregulation of HMGA2 and serve as a predictor for an unfavorable prognosis in patients with CRC. (A) Cell lysates from 42 pairs CRC tissues and matched adjacent tissues were blotted with USP48 and HMGA2 antibodies. (B) Correlation analysis of USP48 and HMGA2 in CRC tissues and matched adjacent tissues. Statistical analyses were performed using the chi-square test. Pearson r indicates the correlation coefficient. (C–E) Representative images of USP48 highly expressed in CRC tissues and IHC score of USP48 in CRC and matched adjacent tissue, respectively. Data are presented as mean ± SD. The comparison between cancer tissues and adjacent or matched adjacent tissues can be conducted using either a Wilcoxon unpaired test or paired t-test. (F–H) Representative images of HMGA2 highly expressed in CRC tissues and IHC score of HMGA2 in CRC and matched adjacent tissue, respectively. Data are presented as mean ± SD. The comparison between cancer tissues and adjacent or matched adjacent tissues can be conducted using either a Wilcoxon unpaired test or paired t-test. (I) Representative images showing the simultaneous high or low expression of both USP48 and HMGA2 in CRC tissues with a scale bar of 100 μm. (J) USP48 protein scores (X axis) in CRC positively correlate with HMGA2 protein scores (Y axis) in individual patients. The P-value was calculated from a linear regression analysis. r is the correlation coefficient. (K–L) Kaplan–Meier curves of the overall survival of CRC patients (90 patients), stratified by USP48 (K) or HMGA2 (L) protein levels. The P-value was calculated from a log-rank test. HR, hazard ratio. (M) Working model of SUMOylated USP48-mediated HMGA2 deubiquitination. ∗∗∗P < 0.001.