TME classes and cell type interaction differ in DE and non-DE DLBCL samples. (A) Heat map showing the classes of TME classes across samples. Subset frequency was normalized to total cells and row scaled by z score. (B) Representative images showed the expression of indicated markers in the scanning area. Scale bar, 200 μm. (C) Circles indicating patterns of cell-cell interactions/avoidance for DE (n = 10) and non-DE (n = 8). The circle size shows the percentage of ROIs with significant interactions/avoidance determined by the permutation test. Rows represent the cell type of interest (center cell), and columns represent other cell types surrounding the interest cell type (neighboring cell). Colors in the heat map indicate the Pearson correlation between cell types across all ROIs in DE and non-DE, respectively. (D) Representative images showed the distribution of CD8⁺ Tex cells and fibroblasts in DE and non-DE DLBCL tissues. FFPE, formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded.