Decreased expression of the long non-coding RNA HOXD-AS2 promotes gastric cancer progression by targeting HOXD8 and activating PI3K/Akt signaling pathway

Figure 1 HOXD-AS2 is downregulated in gastric cancer tissues and is associated with a poor prognosis in gastric cancer patients. A: The relative expression level of HOXD-AS2 in gastric cancer (GC) tissues was significantly lower than that in adjacent non-cancerous tissues (ANTs; P = 0.030, n = 79); B: HOXD-AS2 expression levels were decreased in human GC tissues and ANTs. Bars represent the ratio between the expression levels in GC tissues and ANTs (C/N, log scale) from the 79 patients. GC tissues expressed significantly lower levels of HOXD-AS2 than ANTs in the majority of patients (62.03%); C: Kaplan-Meier survival analysis showed that patients with low HOXD-AS2 expression had a poorer prognosis than those with high expression. Low: The expression level of HOXD-AS2 is lower than that of ANTs. High: The expression level of HOXD-AS2 is higher than that of ANTs. Expression levels were normalized to β-actin levels. The results are shown as the mean ± SD. ^aP < 0.05, two-tailed Student’s t-test. GC: Gastric cancer; ANTs: Adjacent non-cancerous tissues.