Relatedness of the GEP of BL to normal B-cell populations. Analysis of genes associated in normal B cells to the GC transitions in BL. The genes that are differentially expressed in naive, memory, and GC B cells during the GC transit were identified by supervised analysis. The expression of the transition genes is investigated in BL. All BL cases are more related to GC B cells than to naive/memory cells, irrespectively of the clinical subtype (A). A cell-type classification is used to measure the relatedness of BLs to naive/memory (NM) and germinal center (GC) B cells. The gray area marks 95% of confidence; the P value decreases with increasing distance from the x-axis (B).