Fig. 1

High expression of FTO predicts poor prognosis and promotes cell migration and invasion in NSCLC in vitro. a FTO mRNA expression levels were significantly upregulated in 24 NSCLC tissues compared to the paired para-cancerous tissues. b Immunohistochemical staining showed cells with moderate FTO staining were observed in NSCLC tissues, while low staining was observed in normal control tissues. Data were collected from the Human Protein Atlas database (https://www.proteinatlas.org). The staining of IHC was clarified as four types (high, medium, low staining or not detected). c FTO upregulation was associated with shorter overall survival (OS) times in NSCLC patients (P < 0.05). Data were obtained from the GEO database (GSE26939) (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo/). d FTO mRNA and protein expression were significantly elevated in NSCLC cell lines. e KEGG analysis reflected that FTO overexpression was related to enrichment of pathways concerning cell metastasis. Data were obtained from the TCGA database. f The relative mRNA and protein expression levels of FTO in H460, H1299, and A549 cells. g-k Quantitative analysis of Transwell and wound healing assay data in H460, H1299, and A549 cells with FTO knockdown or FTO overexpression. l Western blot analysis verified that FTO regulated EMT-related proteins including Snail, Slug, and N-cadherin, in NSCLC. Data information: Data are shown as the mean ± SDs. In all relevant panels, *P < 0.05; **P < 0.01; ***P < 0.001