Fig. 5: Spatial dynamics of CD8⁺ T cell recruitment mediated by macrophages and dendritic cells in orthotopic tumors in Thbs2^-/- mice.

a Imaging mass cytometry (IMC) images of orthotopic tumors in WT or Thbs2^-/- mice at two weeks post-injection of MTO. White lines denote tumor borders. Scale bars, 100 μm. T: tumor, NT: non-tumor. b–d Neighborhood composition analyses using CytoMAP. Region prevalence (b) and dimensionality reduction UMAP plots (c, d) of neighborhoods involving CD8⁺ T cells, F4/80⁺ TAMs, and CD11c⁺ DCs in tumors of WT or Thbs2^-/- mice. Regions are color-coded based on types defined in Supplementary Fig. 7b. e–g CD8⁺ T cell infiltration analysis. Representative images showing infiltrating CD8⁺ T cells; inset images highlight infiltration bands at the tumor–non-tumor interface (e). Green lines indicate tumor borders. Histograms (f) and scatter plots (g) show distances of CD8⁺ T cells from borders (n: WT = 261, Thbs2^-/- = 2459). h–m Proximity analyses between CD8⁺ T cells, F4/80⁺ macrophages, and CD11c⁺ DCs. Green lines indicate tumor borders. Representative images (h) histograms (i) and scatter plots (j) show the nearest distances between CD8⁺ T cells and CD11c⁺ DCs (n: WT = 706, Thbs2^-/- = 880). Representative images (k) histograms (l) and scatter plots (m) show the nearest distances between CD8⁺ T cells and F4/80⁺ macrophages (n: WT = 960, Thbs2^-/- = 1022). Green lines denote tumor borders. Mann-Whitney U-test, two-sided (g, j, m). Mean ± SEM. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.