Figure 2.

AMIGO2 expression is induced by TGF‐β and increased in metastatic stages of CRC and female patients. AMIGO2 mRNA expression in CRC primary tumors of a prospectively collected cohort (n = 338) in relation to (A) tumor size (T‐category), (B) lymph node metastasis (N‐category), (C) distant organ metastasis (M‐category), and (D) different Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) stages. (E) NAF cultures from different CRC patients (n = 3) were treated with IL‐17α (0.5 ng/ml), TNF‐α (50 ng/ml), TGF‐β (5 ng/ml), and combined IL‐17α and TNF‐α for 24 h, and subsequently AMIGO2 expression was determined by RT‐qPCR. Results are given in fold‐change (mean ± SD, t‐test, **p = 0.0058). Comparison of AMIGO2 mRNA expression between male and female patients in (F) the total cohort from above and (G) patients with distant metastases (UICC IV). (H) UICC stage distributions in male and female patients from the cohort above (χ ² test). (I) Immunohistochemical detection of AMIGO2 in non‐metastatic (UICC I) and metastatic stages (UICC IV) of CRC (n = 12). Fibroblasts in the stroma are indicated by asterisks. (J) Quantification of stromal fibroblast staining intensity from the results obtained in (I). Results are shown as mean ± SD (two‐tailed, unpaired Student's t‐test, **p < 0.001).