Fig. 2

SATB2-AS1 inhibits CRC metastasis and regulates the immune response of CRC. a, GSEA results were plotted to visualize the correlation between the expression of SATB2-AS1 and genes related to the EMT (epithelial-mesenchymal transition, left) and immune response (right). b, Transwell assays were used to determine the invasion and migration abilities of SATB2-AS1 siRNAs-transfected CRC cells. c, Upper panel, representative CT scans, images of the gross lesion in lung tissues and HE staining of metastatic nodules in the lungs from the different group. Lower panel, summarized data on metastatic rates and survival analysis was performed in mice bearing CRC transfected with the indicated cells. d, The E-cadherin and Vimentin protein levels were detected by immunofluorescence after SATB2-AS1 knockdown. e, SATB2 and metastasis-related proteins were detected by western blot after SATB2-AS1 knockdown. f, Upper panel, unsupervised clustering of CRC patients from the TCGA cohort using single-sample gene set enrichment analysis scores from 24 immune cell types. SATB2-AS1 and SATB2 expression were annotated in the lower panel. Hierarchical clustering was performed with Euclidean distance and Ward linkage. Two distinct immune infiltration clusters, here termed high infiltration and low infiltration, were defined. Lower panel, chi-square test results showed differences in sample distribution. g, CXCL9 and CXCL10 were detected by qRT-PCR (left) and ELISA (right) after SATB2-AS1 knockdown in HCT-116 cells. Scale bar = 20 μm. **, P < 0.01 and ***, P < 0.001