Fig. 2

Identification of CXCL12 as a key CAF-derived cytokine in bladder cancer. (A) The DEGs between tumor and normal tissues in TCGA (up), and the DEGs between high and low CAFs proportion groups in TCGA (down). (B) Venn plot of the DEGs and cytokine list. (C) Forest plot for univariate Cox analysis of 10 cytokines. (D) Comparison of expression levels of 10 cytokines at different clinical stages. (E) Comparison the expression levels of 10 cytokines in CAFs (EPIC algorithm) of TCGA data. (F) Comparison of CXCL12 expression levels in different cell types of EPIC algorithm. (G) UMAP plot of Seurat clusters for single cells. (H) UMAP plot of single cells profiled by major cell types. (I, J) Comparison of the distribution and expression of CXCL12 in different single cell types. (K) IHC results showed that CXCL12 and PDL1 were highly expressed in the α-SMA high-expression region and vice versa. (L) Correlation of IHC scores of α-SMA with IHC scores of CXCL12. (M) Correlation of IHC scores of CXCL12 with IHC scores of PDL1. (N) Comparison of overall survival between high and low IHC score groups of CXCL12 in bladder cancer tissues (n = 56). ** P < 0.01; *** P < 0.001; **** P < 0.0001