Fig. 4: Expression characteristics of CXCL12/CXCR4 in GC and their correlation with CAFs and macrophages.

A Representative immunohistochemical staining and H&E staining images of CXCL12 and CXCR4 expression in adjacent normal tissues and tumor tissues of GC patients (Normal, N = 5; GC, N = 5) (scale bar: 50 μm, 100 μm); B Correlation bar graphs of CXCL12 and CXCR4 with various infiltrating cell types in the GC microenvironment, where the shade of circle color represents significance level, and the size of the circle represents correlation strength; C Differential expression of CXCL12 and CXCR4 in the mRNA sequencing dataset (Normal, N = 3; GC, N = 3); D, E Differential expression of CXCL12 and CXCR4 in all (left) or paired (right) GC samples and adjacent normal tissues (Normal, N = 32; GC, N = 375) from the TCGA-STAD dataset; F Expression differences of CXCL12 and CXCR4 in GC tumors at different T stages (T1 to T4) from the TCGA-STAD dataset; G Correlation analysis of high and low CXCL12 and CXCR4 expression with overall survival in the TCGA-STAD dataset; H Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve analysis of CXCR4 in the TCGA-STAD dataset, with the area under the curve (AUC) quantifying its predictive performance. Numerical data is presented as mean ± standard deviation and intergroup differences were analyzed using unpaired t-tests. * indicates P < 0.05, ** indicates P < 0.01, *** indicates P < 0.001 for comparisons between groups, with * denoting statistical significance.