Fig 2: Validation of TNXB and SPON1 expression. (A) Western blot analysis of TNXB and SPON1 expression in tumor tissues. (B) Statistical analysis of the results shown in A (n = 5). (C) Western blot analysis of TNXB and SPON1 expression in gastric cancer cells. (D) Statistical analysis of the results shown in C (n = 3). *P < 0.05; ** P < 0.01; ns, no significance. (E) Immunohistochemistry validation of TNXB and SPON1 expression in FFPE samples. Tumor samples from three individual patients in each group were examined. Magnification: 100×, scale bar: 200 µm. For B and D: error bars indicate SEM, unpaired two-tailed Student's t-test.

Fig 3: TNXB and SPON1 are potential biomarkers of lymph node metastasis in GAC. (A) Heatmap of top 50 most significantly changed proteins (smallest P value ranking) in primary tumors from GAC patients. (B) Protein–protein interaction network of top 30 upregulated proteins, including TNXB, SPON1, and their interaction proteins. (C) Expression of TNXB and SPON1 at mRNA level from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). Limma was used for differential gene expression analysis. (D) Correlation of protein expression between SPON1 and TNXB. Pearson's correlation was calculated. (E) Correlation of mRNA expression between SPON1 and TNXB from TCGA. Spearman's rank correlation was calculated. (F, G) Overall survival (F) and progression-free interval (G) of GAC patients stratified by expression level of TNXB and SPON1 combined.