Fig. 2: dMMR and pMMR tumor-stroma boundaries display distinguished cellular components and spatial distributions.

a Uniform manifold approximation and projection (UMAP) of the transcriptome of 27,154 single cells from 10 CRC patients (5 pMMR; 2 dPR/CR; 3 dSD). Cells are colored by single cell subclusters, b major cell types or (c) patient ID. The names of the cell of interests are highlighted in red. d The stacked stream plots of immune cell distribution patterns from distal stroma (–1000 μm, left) to tumor center (1000 μm, right) in indicated patient groups are shown. The mean RCTD frequencies of each immune cell in each 1 mm interval was smoothed using slinger model and colored by cell sub-clusters in accordance with (a). e Schematic diagram illustrates the definitions of the distant stroma (<-150 μm; light blue), the tumor-stroma boundary (0 ± 150 μm, light red), including the tumor edge (0 μm to 150 μm), and tumor center (> 150 μm; light yellow). f Scatter-curve plot of the distributive patterns of indicated cell clusters in treatment naïve dMMR (orange) and pMMR (blue), or (g) dCR/dPR(light pink) and dSD (green). The tumor-stroma boundary is highlighted in light red. The RCTD frequencies at the same distance from the boundary were averaged and represented as a single dot, which was smoothed using a loess model. h Donut charts show the proportions of immune cells at the central of the tumor-stroma boundary (0 μm). The inner donut represents major immune cell types, while the outer donut represents immune cell subclusters. The colors are in accordance with (a). i The RCTD frequencies of indicated immune cell subclusters in the tumor-stroma boundary of the four groups of patients. Data are analyzed by unpaired 2-tailed Student t test. P values are labeled within each plot.