Fig. 4

Identification and validation of candidate reference miRNAs predicted in exosomes of ovarian cancer patients. Scatterplot of candidate reference miRNA expression levels in pooled cancer samples (HCC, HNSCC, LCA, NBL, OVA, and THCA) and healthy control individuals. Expression values are shown as the logarithm of counts per million (CPM) (log₂(CPM + 1)). The red dots represent candidate reference miRNAs, grey dots genome-wide miRNAs (a). Expression levels of six candidate reference miRNAs in exosomes of pooled cancer (b), ovarian cancer patients (relative to ce-miR-39-1, n = 10) (c) and healthy control individuals (relative to ce-miR-39-1, n = 10) (d). Expression stability of candidate reference miRNAs in exosomes of pooled cancer (e), ovarian cancer patients (f) and healthy control individuals (g) as measured by the “CV”. Expression stability of six candidate reference miRNAs in exosomes of pooled cancer (h), ovarian cancer patients (i) and healthy control individuals (j) as measured by the “M” indicator