Single-Cell Transcriptome Analysis Reveals Neutrophil Populations in Gastric Cancer

The full neutrophil heterogeneity and function remains incompletely characterized in gastric cancer progression. Here, we profiled >21,854 mouse neutrophils with an average of 1,189 genes per cell using single-cell RNA sequencing to provide a comprehensive transcriptional landscape of neutrophil function and fate decision in tumor progression. By combining scRNA-Seq analysis with tumor model, flowcytometry, genetic mice and clinical sample, our results define four neutrophils subpopulations in gastric cancer. Importantly, we also identified the critical transcription factor for the generation of effective activated neutrophils targeted for tumor cells. Overall design: We performed scRNA-seq analysis with bone marrow neutrophils, spleen neutrophils, blood neutrophils and tumor associated neutrophils from tumor bearing mice for 10 days, and tumor associated neutrophils from tumor bearing mice for 3 days. We also performed scRNA-seq analysis with tumor infiltrated CD45+ immune cells from WT and KO mice. Next, we detected the presence of neutrophils subpopulations in human gastric cancer by scRNA-seq of sorted human tumor infiltrated CD45+ immune cells.