Nat. Commun. Interaction patterns between interstitial cells and macrophages in colorectal cancer tumor borders

On April 1, the team of Prof.

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most common malignant tumors, with the characteristics of easy metastasis and recurrence, and lack of more effective treatment methods except surgery

In this study, the research team used single-cell transcriptome sequencing to find that colorectal cancer tissues were specifically enriched for FAP+ fibroblasts and SPP1+ macrophages compared with paracancerous tissues, and analyzed multiple colon cancer datasets through CIBERSORTx.

Figure 1.

Further cell interaction analysis revealed that these two groups of cells may play a regulatory role through the interaction of RARRES2/CMKLR1, and the Chemerin protein encoded by RARRES2 showed higher expression in the plasma of colorectal cancer patients compared with the plasma of healthy people.

Figure 2.

This study elucidates the "cold" tumor nature of colorectal cancer, suggesting that the possible wall-like structure formed by interstitial cells and macrophages is the key to blocking T cell infiltration

Dr.