Department of Liver Surgery and Transplantation, Liver Cancer Institute, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, and Key Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Cancer Invasion, Ministry of Education, Shanghai, 200032, China.
Shanghai Cancer Center, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200032, China.
Commun Biol. 2023 Nov 20;6(1):1181. doi: 10.1038/s42003-023-05455-0.
Primary liver cancer (PLC) poses a leading threat to human health, and its treatment options are limited. Meanwhile, the investigation of homogeneity and heterogeneity among PLCs remains challenging. Here, using single-cell RNA sequencing, spatial transcriptomic and bulk multi-omics, we elaborated a molecular architecture of 3 PLC types, namely hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC) and combined hepatocellular-cholangiocarcinoma (CHC). Taking a high-resolution perspective, our observations revealed that CHC cells exhibit internally discordant phenotypes, whereas ICC and HCC exhibit distinct tumor-specific features. Specifically, ICC was found to be the primary source of cancer-associated fibroblasts, while HCC exhibited disrupted metabolism and greater individual heterogeneity of T cells. We further revealed a diversity of intermediate-state cells residing in the tumor-peritumor junctional zone, including a congregation of CPE intermediate-state endothelial cells (ECs), which harbored the molecular characteristics of tumor-associated ECs and normal ECs. This architecture offers insights into molecular characteristics of PLC microenvironment, and hints that the tumor-peritumor junctional zone could serve as a targeted region for precise therapeutical strategies.
原发性肝癌(PLC)对人类健康构成严重威胁,其治疗选择有限。同时,PLC 之间的同质性和异质性的研究仍然具有挑战性。在这里,我们使用单细胞 RNA 测序、空间转录组学和大量多组学,详细阐述了 3 种 PLC 类型(肝细胞癌 [HCC]、肝内胆管癌 [ICC] 和混合型肝癌 [CHC])的分子结构。从高分辨率的角度来看,我们的观察结果表明,CHC 细胞表现出内部不一致的表型,而 ICC 和 HCC 则表现出不同的肿瘤特异性特征。具体来说,ICC 是癌相关成纤维细胞的主要来源,而 HCC 则表现出代谢紊乱和 T 细胞个体异质性增加。我们进一步揭示了存在于肿瘤-瘤周交界区的多种中间状态细胞,包括聚集的 CPE 中间状态内皮细胞(EC),其具有肿瘤相关 EC 和正常 EC 的分子特征。这种结构为 PLC 微环境的分子特征提供了深入了解,并暗示肿瘤-瘤周交界区可能成为精确治疗策略的靶向区域。
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