Supporting data for "Transmembrane protein VMP1 dysregulation in modulating tumour growth and angiogenesis in glioblastoma"

This dataset contains data determining the upregulation of VMP1 in glioblastoma compared to normal brain tissues using two publicly available microarray datasets CGGA and TCGA and the candidate’s cohort of clinical specimens. Moreover, Kaplan Meier survival, Cox proportional hazard regression and receiver operating curve analyses revealed that VMP1 could serve as an independent diagnostic and prognostic biomarker for glioma patients. Functional characterization of VMP1 was then performed with loss- and gain-of-function studies and found that VMP1 exerted oncogenic effects on GBM growth in vivo but not in vitro. The inconsistency between in vitro and in vivo findings suggested that VMP1-mediated oncogenic effects might be dependent on a three-dimensional microenvironment. Bioinformatic analysis predicted that VMP1 dysregulation could be associated with altered extracellular matrix (ECM)- receptor interaction and angiogenesis in GBM. Concertedly, direct forced expression of VMP1 was associated with significant increases in the diameter of GBM spheroids in ECM-coated cell culture and the number and diameter of blood vessels in both subcutaneous and intracranial xenografts. Moreover, VMP1-overexpressing cells-derived soluble pro-angiogenic factors were found to activate the angiogenic switch in endothelial cells in both ECM dependent and -independent manners possibly via β-catenin and LOX-mediated signaling pathways, which in turn conferred growth advantage in GBM cells.