Fig 2: Correlations between MMP-associated gene levels and the levels of infiltrating immune cells determined by CIBERSORT. Differences in the levels of infiltrating immune cells between the CD and UC groups in the Combined Datasets (A) and the GSE75214 dataset (B). Correlations between the MMP-associated gene levels and immune cell levels were further examined by a Spearman correlation analysis in the Combined Datasets (C) and the GSE75214 dataset (D), and results with significant differences are shown (*p < 0.05, **p < 0.01). The results, including data regarding other MMP-associated genes, including CXCL13, MMP3, MMP1 and CXCL1, are illustrated in Supplementary Figure 2 .

Fig 3: Clinicopathological examination of MMP-associated genes in tissue samples. (A) Representative images of H&E staining of samples from CD and UC patients. The IHC staining images are representative images of the expression levels of ANXA1 (B), MMP10 (C), MMP7 (D), CXCL13 (E) and CXCL1 (F) in CD and UC samples. (G) IHC score difference analysis of MMP-associated genes in IBD patients. Statistical differences were analyzed by a Mann−Whitney U test.

Fig 4: Verification of MMP-associated genes in different IBD cohorts The correlation between the levels of internal MMP-associated genes in both Combined Datasets (A) and the GSE75214 dataset (B) using a Spearman correlation analysis. The differences in MMP-associated genes between CD and UC were examined in both the Combined Datasets (C) and the GSE75214 dataset (D) using the limma package. ROC curves estimating the diagnostic performance of the MMP-associated genes ANXA1, MMP10, MMP1, CXCL13 and CXCL1 in the discrimination of IBD patients in the Combined Datasets (E) and GSE75214 (F). ** indicates P<0.01, *** indicates P<0.001.

Fig 5: Expression of CXC chemokines between cervical cancer tissues and adjacent tissues were analyzed by qRT-PCR by Student's t-test or Mann–Whitney U test. CXCL9/10/11/13 were significantly up-regulated in cervical cancer tissues compared with adjacent tissues. a CXCL9. b CXCL10. c CXCL11. d CXCL12. e CXCL13.*p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001