Function of T cells within tertiary lymphoid structures in ovarian cancer
(A) UMAP showing seven T cell subpopulations in ovarian tumors. Cell cluster annotation for (A–D): CD4+ T helper cells (Th), CD8+ T resident memory (Trm), effector memory T cells (Tem), NK cells (NK), CD4+ GZMB+ (ILC), regulatory T cells (Treg), and CD4+ IL-7R+ naive T cells (Tnaive).
(B) Marker genes in the seven T cell subpopulations.
(C) Dot plot showing marker genes in T cell subpopulations comparing TLS-high with TLS-low tumors.
(D) GZMB expression in T cell subpopulations comparing TLS-high with TLS-low tumors. The p-values are given by Wilcoxon rank-sum test.
(E) GZMB concentration comparing TLS-high (n = 44) with TLS-low tumors (n = 24) from HH cohort.
(F) UMAP showing five T cell subpopulations in ovarian tumors and adjacent non-malignant tissues. Cell cluster annotation for (F–I): CD8+ T resident memory (Trm), effector memory T cells (Tem), NK cells (NK), CD4+ GZMB+ (ILC), and CD4+ IL-7R+ naive T cells (Tnaive).
(G) Proportions of T cell subpopulations comparing ovarian tumors with adjacent non-malignant tissues.
(H) Dot plot showing marker gene expression in tumor and non-malignant tissues.
(I) GZMB expression in T cell subpopulations comparing tumor with non-malignant tissues. The p-values are given by Wilcoxon rank-sum test.
(J) Numbers of CD8+ T cells that infiltrated TLS-high ovarian tumors (n = 41) compared with TLS-low ovarian tumors (n = 73) in the HH cohort. Non-TLS CD8+ T cells were measured.
(K) Numbers of CD8+ T cells in TLS-high (n = 10) sections compared with paired TLS-low (n = 34) sections from the same ovarian cancer cases.
(L) Numbers of CD163+ cells in TLS-high tumors (n = 21) compared with TLS-low tumors (n = 8) in the HH cohort. For (J)–(L), the p values are given by two-tailed t test. ∗∗∗∗p < 0.0001; ∗∗p < 0.01; ∗p < 0.05; ns, p > 0.05. For boxplot elements are defined as follows: the center line indicates median value, box limits indicate upper and lower quartiles, whiskers extend to 1.5× the interquartile range, and points beyond the whiskers are outliers.