Fig. 7: ANXA1^high epithelial tumor cells facilitate communication with myeloid cells.

a Sub-clustering of epithelial tumor cells into two distinct sub-clusters, ANXA1^high_Epi and ANXA1^low_Epi, visualized in the reduction plot. b ANXA1 expression levels in the two subclusters from the 16 OSCC samples. ANXA1 was significantly upregulated in ANXA1^high_Epi cells. Data were shown as mean ± SD. Significance was calculated by two-sided Student’s t test. Exact p values and sample amount (cells) were provided in the Source Data file. c The expression of ANXA1 in ANXA1^high_Epi or ANXA1^low_Epi cells grouped by early-stage (n = 7 biologically independent samples) or late-stage (n = 7 biologically independent samples) OSCC. Data were shown as mean ± SD. Significance was calculated by two-sided Student’s t test. Exact p values and sample amount (cells) were provided in the Source Data file. d The cell portion of ANXA1^high_Epi and ANXA1^low_Epi cells in total epithelial tumor cells from each sample (n = 16 biologically independent samples). Data were shown as mean ± SD. Significance was calculated by two-sided Student’s t test. Exact p values were provided in the Source Data file. ns, non-significant. e Stemness of epithelial tumor cell sub-clusters was analyzed using CytoTRACE from the 16 OSCC samples. ANXA1^high_Epi exhibited higher stemness compared to ANXA1^low_Epi. f In CytoTRACE output boxplots, the center line represented the median, the box bounds denoted the interquartile range (25th to 75th percentiles), the whiskers extended to the largest/smallest values within 1.5 times the interquartile range, and any points beyond the whiskers represented outliers. Significance was calculated by two-sided Student’s t test. Exact p values and sample amount (cells) were provided in the Source Data file. GSVA analysis assessing the activity of g tumor stemness and h antigen presentation pathways in epithelial tumor cells from the 16 OSCC samples. Data were shown as mean ± SD. Significance was calculated by two-sided Student’s t test. Exact p values and sample amount (cells) were provided in the Source Data file.