Fig. 6: Tuft cells and SOX9 expression are associated with the characteristics of EMT in CRSwNP.

a Combined ISH for Pou2f3, and immunofluorescence for E-Cadherin in human sinonasal tissue from healthy control (HC) and CRSwNP. Pou2f3⁺ cells (yellow arrow). Scale bars: 20 µm. b, c Quantification of Pou2f3⁺ tuft cells (b) and E-Cadherin staining (c) in the SAE across human sinonasal tissues. Group sizes: n = 6, 11, 27 independent patients, from left to right. Two-tailed unpaired Mann-Whitney U test (b). Kruskal–Wallis test followed by Dunn’s multiple-comparisons test with Holm–Bonferroni correction (c). d Spearman’s correlation analysis (two-sided) between E-Cadherin levels and Pou2f3⁺ tuft cell numbers in patients with CRSwNP (n = 27, independent patients). No multiple comparison adjustment was applied. e Representative images of E-Cadherin, α-SMA, and SOX9 staining in human sinonasal mucosa from CRS patients and healthy control (HC). SOX9⁺α-SMA⁺ cells (yellow arrow). Scale bars: 20 µm. f Quantification of SOX9⁺ and/or α-SMA⁺ cells in the SAE from the indicated groups. Group sizes: n = 6, 11, 27 independent patients, from left to right. Kruskal–Wallis test followed by Dunn’s multiple-comparisons test with Holm–Bonferroni correction. g, h Spearman’s correlation analysis (two-sided) between SOX9⁺ cell numbers and E-Cadherin intensity (g) and α-SMA⁺ cell numbers (h) in patients with CRSwNP (n = 27 independent patients). No multiple comparison adjustment was applied. i Spearman’s correlation analysis (two-sided) between E-Cadherin levels and SOX9⁺α-SMA⁺ cell numbers in patients with CRSwNP (n = 27 independent patients). No multiple comparison adjustment was applied. The Spearman r values and the corresponding P values were calculated (g–i). j SOX9 progenitor cell signature module score in basal EpCs from the Wang scRNA-seq dataset (HRA000772) across the patients. One-sided Wilcoxon rank sum test was used. No multiple comparison adjustment was applied. The dashed line marks the border between SAE and SM. Box plots (b, c, f) show median (center line), 25th–75th percentiles (box), and min–max values (whiskers). Each data point represents the average of 3–4 images from one patient. See “Methods”. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.