Fig. 4

Allocation of the signature. a Heatmap of immune cell populations ordered according to expression of the 34-gene signature (cluster 3). b Correlation of the NK cell population as measured using MCP-counter in the two independent validation cohorts. Samples are ordered according to the 34-gene expression signature. c Volcano plot with the log-fold change on the x-axis and FDR (−log10) on the y-axis in AD and SCC for cell surface genes. d Boxplot for expression of ULBP2 in AD vs. SCC in our dataset and the two independent validation sets. ***p < 0.001. e Boxplot for expression of HLA-C in AD vs. SCC and boxplot with the expression of HLA-C in ULBP2 high vs ULBP2 low samples. *p < 0.05, ***p < 0.001. f Examples of a CD56⁺/CD3⁻ NK cell in a 34-gene signature high SCC sample (a) and in a 34-gene signature low AD sample (b)