Bioinformatics analysis reveals the landscape of immune cell infiltration and immune-related pathways participating in the progression of carotid atherosclerotic plaques.

Atherosclerosis is a systemic disease associated with inflammatory cell infiltration and activation of immune-related pathways. In our study, we aimed to uncover immune-related changes and explore novel immunological features in the development of carotid atherosclerotic plaques. First, we applied integrated bioinformatics methods, including CIBERSORT and gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA). The gene expression matrices GSE28829, GSE41571, and GSE43292 were obtained from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) dataset. After a series of data pre-processing steps, the resulting combined expression matrices were analysed using the CIBERSORT, GSEA, and Cluster Profiler packages. After the comparison and analysis between the carotid atherosclerotic plaques in the early and advanced stages, we discovered that there is a higher percentage of activated memory CD4 T cells and a lower percentage of resting memory CD4 cells in advanced-stage plaques. Moreover, activation of memory CD4 T cells can promote the development of carotid atherosclerotic plaques. Additionally, FOXP3 Treg cell maturation can also participate in the progression of carotid plaques.