Fig. 1: Identification of differentially expressed tsRNAs in plasma.

a Flowchart of study design. b Heatmap clustering analysis of differentially expressed tsRNAs between 8 patients with BC and 4 healthy controls by high-throughput sequencing. c Relative expression levels of 15 tsRNAs in cell supernatants by qRT-PCR. The red box represented the expression levels in at least 3 BC cell supernatants were higher than that in human breast epithelial cell MCF-10A (fold change >1.5, p < 0.05). The color key meant fold change. d Relative expression levels in cell lines by qRT-PCR. The red box represented the expression levels in at least 3 BC cell lines were higher than that in MCF-10A (fold change >1.5, p < 0.05). The color key meant fold change. e Comparison of the results in cell supernatants and cell lines, and 6 tsRNAs were identified. f Expression levels of tRF-Arg-CCT-017, tRF-Gly-CCC-001, and tiRNA-Phe-GAA-003 in plasma samples from 120 patients with BC and 112 healthy controls by qRT-PCR. g Expression levels in plasma samples of different subtypes. h Expression levels in exosomes isolated from plasma samples of 24 patients with BC and 16 healthy controls by qRT-PCR. Horizontal line means with SEM. Y axis represents the relative expression (2^−ΔΔCt). NC healthy controls, BC patients with breast cancer.