Fig. 2: Genetic deletion of Cyp11a1 in immune cells alters TNBC tumour dynamics and the immune landscape of the TME.

A Schematic illustration depicting the experimental strategy. B Subcutaneous E0771.LMB tumour growth curve of control versus Cyp11a1^cKO mice; each data point represents average tumour size (N = 12; Two-way ANOVA for growth curves). C Representative photograph of E0771.LMB tumour in control and Cyp11a1^cKO mice. D Bar chart showing the scaled concentrations of steroid hormones detected in the tumours from control and Cyp11a1^cKO mice via LC-MS (N = 6 for control and N = 9 for Cyp11a1^cKO). E t-SNE plots of CD45⁺ immune cells from control (N = 3) and Cyp11a1^cKO (N = 3) mice. Different colours on the left highlight distinct immune cell subsets, while the right contrasts cell origins from control versus Cyp11a1^cKO mice. F Marker gene expression across immune cell clusters of panel (E). G Relative percentages of immune cell populations between Vav1^Cre control and Cyp11a1^cKO mice (N = 3). H Differential M1 macrophage scores in macrophages extracted from Vav1^Cre control versus Cyp11a1^cKO mice. Each dot represents a single cell. The box plot shows the median as the center, the 25th and 75th percentiles as the box boundaries, whiskers extending to the most extreme values within 1.5×IQR from the quartiles, and outliers plotted separately. I Dot plot presentation of M1 versus M2 gene expression in macrophages sourced from both Vav1^Cre control and Cyp11a1^cKO mice. J–L Flow cytometry profiles emphasising Mertk (J), iNos (K) and Arg1 (L) expression in CD11b⁺ cells from Vav1^Cre and Cyp11a1^cKO mice (left). The adjoining chart (right) showcases the percentage expression for each group. N = 4 (J), N = 3 (K), N = 5 (L). All experiments are representative of two or three independent repeats except (D–G). All error bars except H: Mean ± SEM; p values were calculated using unpaired two-tailed t-test unless stated. Source data for B, D, J & K are provided as a Source Data file. Figure 2A was partly generated using Servier Medical Art, licensed under a CC BY 4.0 license.