SPARCL1 and gastroesophageal reflux disease: MMP2, LAMC2, LAMA2, COL5A3, COL7A1, CRTAC1, COL28A1, THBS, HMCN2, and SPARCL1 were identified as significantly enriched in GERD among the exclusively upregulated DAPs, as indicated by the ”Extracellular matrix” enrichment term (UniProt Keywords) (Fig. 3D).