Fig 2: The expression and predictive effects of TCF1 on the TTFT and OS for patients with CLL. The expression of TCF1 in PBMCs and CD3+ T cells from CLL patients and healthy individuals (HIs) in the GSE66425 (A) and GSE19147 (B) datasets. (C) qPCR and (D) FCM verified the results of TCF1 expression in PBMCs and CD3+ T cells from CLL patients and HIs in the HNCH. (E) The TTFT (left panel) and RMST (right panel) for the high and low TCF1 expression groups in the GSE39671 dataset. (F) The OS (left panel) and RMST (right panel) for the high and low TCF1 expression groups in the GSE22762 dataset. (G) The TTFT (left panel) and RMST (right panel) for the high and low TCF1 expression groups in the HNCH. Error bars indicate SE.

Fig 3: Study flow chart. The expression, biological function, and effects of TCF1 and its co-expressing genes were analyzed in the GEO and STRING databases. Then, the above findings were validated in 50 CLL patients from Henan Cancer Hospital (HNCH).

Fig 4: Biological process and KEGG pathway analysis of TCF7 co-expressing genes and partner gene screening in patients with CLL. (A) The 114 common co-expressing genes (R > 0.3 P < 0.05) in the GSE22762 and GSE39671 datasets were filtered by the Venny online tool (left panel). Then, the STRING online tool was used to create the PPI network, MCODE analysis (middle panel) identified the 14 hub genes (highlighted in yellow), and the correlations of the 14 hub genes in the GSE2276 and GSE39671 datasets were plotted by the Circos web tool (right panel). (B) The PPI network of the 14 hub genes and their KEGG pathway annotation. (C) The PPI network and biological processes of 5 hub genes was directly related to TCF7. (D) MCL clustering analysis demonstrated a close relationship among TCF7, BCL11B, and RUNX3 in CLL patients in the GSE22762 and GSE39671 datasets. The expression of BCL11B and RUNX3 was measured in CLL patients from the HNCH (E) and GSE19147 (F) dataset, respectively. (G) The correlation between TCF7 and BCL11B in the GSE39671 and GSE22762 datasets, respectively. R, Spearman correlation coefficient. Error bars indicate SE.

Fig 5: The percentage of TCF1+ cells on various T cell subgroups of CLL and HIs. (A) Flow cytometry gating strategy. (B) Representative profiles of TCF1 expression on CD3+, CD3+CD4+, and CD3+CD8+ T cells in HIs (top) and CLL patients (bottom). (C) The expression of TCF1 in CD3+, CD3+CD4+, and CD3+CD8+ T cells from CLL patients and HIs in the HNCH. Error bars indicate SE.