Figure 1. GD2 expression in BLCA.

(A) Heat map of GD2 expression across different stages of BLCA and the adjacent tissues. Columns represent individual tissue samples and rows represent GD2 expression. Shades of red and green represent higher and lower levels of GD2. (B) Box plot showing GD2 expression in BLCA cell lines by mass spectrometry. (C) BLCA (RT4, 5637, J82) cells were stained with anti-GD2 antibody and analyzed on FACS AriaII flow cytometer. GD2^+/– gates were drawn based on unstained and single stained controls FSC, forward scatter. (D-E) GD2^+/– UMUC3 cells were sorted and cultured in cell culture dishes for 4 days. (Scale bars: 50 μm). (F) 2 × 10⁴ GD2^+/– UMUC3 cells were grown in 6-well cell culture dishes in triplicate. Total cells were counted on days 2, 4, and 6 using a Vi-CELL (Beckman Coulter) cell counter (^* indicates p<0.05; ^** indicates p<0.001).