Fig. 7: Mesenchymal tumor cells interacting with macrophages drive an invasive glioma phenotype.

A Chord diagram of the HGF-MET signaling pathway, active exclusively in Pdgfb^ret/ret tumors, based on the CellChat analysis. The plot shows the Pdgfb^ret/ret tumor-specific interaction of macrophages and MES II cells. B Violin plot shows the logNormalized expression of Hgf and Met in Pdgfb^ret/ret and Pdgfb^ret/+ cells across all scRNA-seq identified clusters. C Spatial distribution of Met expression for a representative Pdgfb^ret/ret stRNA-seq sample (#1159). D Combined multiplexed immunostaining-in situ hybridization (ISH) analysis for the detection of Hgf, Aif1, Fosl1, Met, and PODXL in PDGFB-induced gliomas, derived from Pdgfb^ret/ret mice. Arrowheads indicate Fosl1⁺ and Fosl1⁺/Met⁺ cells. E, F In vitro sphere-induction analysis of MET⁺, F4/80⁻, and MET⁻, F4/80⁻ cells, isolated from PDGFB-induced glioma tissue. Cells were seeded at passage (P) 2. Total sphere number per culture was determined at passages P3 and P4 (E). Cells seeded at P6 were treated with HGF or mock (F). MET⁻ cells are depicted in black and MET⁺ cells in red. Two-sided t-test. Mean (bars) with SD is shown. Three biological replicates per treatment were analyzed. G Kaplan–Meier curves showing symptom-free survival of mice transplanted with MET⁺ (5) and MET^- (6) glioma cells. Log-ranked test. H Representative immunostainings of CD44 and PIM on glioma sections derived from intracranial engraftment of MET⁺ and MET^- glioma cells. Source data are provided as a Source data file.