Figure 7: NLRC4 and CASP1 are associated with macrophage markers and poor outcome in human breast cancer.

(a,b) NLRC4 mRNA is elevated in normal breast tissues from obese individuals (a) and is positively correlated with BMI (b). Number of cases indicated. Data from GSE33256 GEO data set. Statistical significance was determined by Welch’s t-test (a) and linear regression and F test (b). (c) The mean NLRC4 and NLRP3 expression ±95% confidence interval (CI) in PAM50 subtypes of breast and normal breast tissue from TCGA-invasive breast cancer data set. Number of cases indicated. (d) CASP1 mRNA is elevated in obese breast cancer patients with luminal B and basal-like breast cancers. Data are presented as the mean±95% CI. Data are from GSE20194 GEO data set. Statistical significance was determined by Welch’s t-test. (e) Correlation of NLRC4 expression (left two panels) or NLRP3 expression (right two panels) with overall survival in months within all human breast cancer patients (all) or within the ER+ breast cancers (ER+), analysed using KM-Plot meta-data set for invasive breast cancer. Statistical significance was determined by log-rank test comparing low versus high groups with number of cases indicated. (f) NLRC4 expression is positively correlated with macrophage markers including CD163 and common markers for myeloid cells such as CD68 and CD33, and is also correlated with IL1B expression in human breast cancer from TCGA (n=960 analysed from cBioPortal). Spearman and Pearson r values are indicated.