Figure 1. INPROGAS: Study outline and representative antibody-based array chips.

A. Informed consent was obtained from all human subjects according to the ethics committee guidelines at the Hospital Dr. Josep Trueta, Girona (Spain). A total of 32 paired GC/non-GC samples were separated into a training set (n=10) and a validation set (n=22), as indicated. B. This figure shows antibody-based array chips encompassing 120 cytokines, 43 angiogenic factors, 41 growth factors, 40 inflammatory factors and 10 metalloproteinases in duplicates probed with whole lysates from paired GC and non-GC mucosae in patients #3 and #22 (NM: Normal mucosa; GC: Gastric carcinoma). The membranes were treated with antibody cocktails, developed by an ECL kit and exposed to an X-ray film as described in the “Materials and Methods”. The intensity of each signal was evaluated photometrically using integrator software and normalized to the background noise in each spot relative to the negative controls. The spot intensities of each protein in replicates were then merged and expressed as a mean value relative to the average signals of the positive controls (membrane-bound biotin-conjugated antibodies) on the array chip analyzed for each experimental (GC) and control (NM) paired group.