Fig. 2 | Scientific Reports

Fig. 2

From: Identification of foam cell like M2 macrophages, AEBP1 biomarkers, and resveratrol as potential therapeutic in MASLD using Ecotyper and WGCNA

Fig. 2

The variance in cell abundance across six distinct cell states between MASLD and MASH, and marker genes across fibrosis stages in GSE167523. (A) The heatmap shows the distribution of 71 cell stats in MAFLD. (B) Box plots for the six top significant cell states between MASLD and MASH (P < 0.0001, t test). PMNs: Polymorphonuclear neutrophils, MASLD: metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease, MASH: metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis. (C) Macrophages.6 marker gene AEBP1, Fibroblasts.3 marker gene COL10A1, Epithelial.cells.3 marker gene ITGA3, and Mast.cells.5 marker gene ARRB2 are progressively up-regulated across fibrosis stages 0 ~ 4 during MASH progression (P < 0.001, ANOVA). (D) Single-cell analysis shows that in normal liver tissue, AEBP1 is expressed in fibroblasts, smooth muscle cells, endothelial cells, and macrophages in the Human Protein Atlas. The x-axis and y-axis represent the first and second UMAP dimensions (UMAP1 and UMAP2), respectively, illustrating the two-dimensional projection of single-cell transcriptomic profiles. UMAP: Uniform Manifold Approximation and Projection. (E) AEBP1 is significantly expressed in M2 macrophages in normal and carcinoma liver (P < 0.001, ANOVA) in GEPIA2021. HCC: hepatocellular Carcinoma.

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