Bioinformatics analyses using OncomineTM and the GEO datasets strengthen the clinical significance of ITGA4 and ITGB7, as their gene expression tend to be upregulated in the MM tissues when compared to healthy NPCs, although ITGB7 was not statistically significant (p = 0.0788) in one of the datasets (Fig. 5 and Additional file 2: Fig. S23). Here, ITGB7 is linked to Miyoshi myopathy.