Fig. 5

Production of soluble programmed death ligand 1 (sPD-L1) in the blood plasma (n = 39) and ascites fluid (n = 22) of ovarian cancer patients. a sPD-L1 level in the blood plasma of ovarian cancer patients and healthy women. b Comparative analysis of sPD-L1 level in the paired blood plasma and ascites fluid samples of ovarian cancer patients (n = 11). c–f The level of sPD-L1 in the blood plasma and ascites fluid samples of ovarian cancer patients with different stage, grade, Kurman–Shih type and histology. g The correlation between the abundance of PD-L1⁺M-MDSCs and sPD-L1 in the blood plasma from ovarian cancer patients (n = 39). h The correlation between the abundance of PD-L1⁺MO/MA and sPD-L1 in the blood plasma from ovarian cancer patients (n = 39). sPD-L1 concentrations were examined using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Horizontal lines indicate the median and the whiskers indicate the minimum and maximum values. Each point represents an individual patient. *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; ****p < 0.0001