Fig 2: The distribution and expression of CHRDL1 and SPARCL1 proteins in twenty pairs of LUAD and normal tissues. Representative pictures of immunohistochemistry of CHRDL1 and SPARCL1 proteins are shown (a, b). The score of immunohistochemistry of CHRDL1 and SPARCL1 proteins are displayed (c, d). ***P = 0.001; ****P < 0.001

Fig 3: External validation of the expression patterns of survival-related hub genes based on GSE19188 and Clinical Proteomic Tumor Analysis Consortium (CPTAC) database. The mRNA (a) and protein (b) expression patterns of CHRDL1 are compared between LUAD and normal lung tissues. The mRNA (c) and protein (d) expression patterns of SPARCL1 are compared between LUAD and normal lung tissues. The mRNA (e) and protein (f) expression patterns of SPP1 are compared between LUAD and normal lung tissues. The mRNA (e) expression pattern of PENK is compared between LUAD and normal lung tissues

Fig 4: Prognostic roles of 10 hub genes and relation with pathological stages in patients of TCGA-LUAD dataset. Survival analysis for a CHRDL1, SPARCL1, SPP1, PENK, CYR61, CP, GAS6, GPC3, IL6 and WFS1 in LUAD. The LUAD patients are divided into high expression cohort (red) and low expression cohort (blue) according to the median expression of hub genes. Log-rank P < 0.05 is believed a statistical difference. b The relations of b CHRDL1, c SPARCL1, d SPP1 and e PENK with pathological stages among patients from TCGA-LUAD dataset