Fig. 6
From: HLA-DPA1 as a diagnostic biomarker differentiating early- and late-onset preeclampsia
Immune Cell Infiltration: Distribution, Visualization, and Correlation Analysis. (A) A bar plot was constructed to illustrate the proportional distribution of 22 immune cell subtypes, with this visualization comparing samples from EOPE tissues and LOPE control pregnancies, thereby providing a clear overview of how immune cell composition varies between the two groups. This stacked bar plot was generated using base R graphics functions, with data derived from the CIBERSORT algorithm (v1.03). (B) Analyses were performed to assess differences in immune cell infiltration between the EOPE and the LOPE control pregnancy group, with the results presented to highlight which specific immune cell subtypes exhibit statistically significant differences in their infiltration levels across the two study cohorts. This box plot was generated using the ggpubr package (version 0.6.2; https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/ggpubr/) in R. (C) The relative expression level of HLA-DPA1 compared between EOPE and LOPE samples, with this comparative analysis drawing on data from three independent datasets (GSE22526, GSE74341, and GSE190639) to ensure the robustness of the observed expression patterns. This box plot was generated using the ggpubr and ggplot2 (version 4.0.1) packages in R. (D) An investigation was conducted to explore the correlation between the expression levels of HLA-DPA1 and the infiltration levels of various immune cell subtypes in EOPE tissues, with the resulting correlation coefficients used to quantify the strength and direction of these associations. This correlation heatmap was generated using the linkET package (version 0.1.0; https://github.com/Hy4m/linkET) and ggplot2 in R. (E) Pathological features of placental tissues from EOPE and LOPE by HE staining. (F) qRT-PCR of HLA-DPA1 expression in EOPE placental tissue when compared with LOPE specimens. (G) When EOPE tissues were compared with LOPE specimens (with sample sizes of 18 for EOPE and 33 for LOPE), significantly lower expression levels of HLA-DPA1 was observed in the EOPE group; representative images of IHC staining for gene are provided at magnifications of ×40 and ×200, illustrating both high and low expression patterns across the 18 LOPE patients and 33 LOPE patients included in the analysis.
