Extended Data Fig. 7: Tumour-derived factors induce APC to obtain adCAF characteristics.

a. Experimental flow chart for dissecting MC38 tumours from tumour-bearing mice and preparing tumour conditioned media. b. RNA sequencing detecting the RNA expression of 4 adCAF-associated transcript factors in mAPCs treated with tumour conditioned media (n = 10). The data are presented as a box-and-whisker graph (bounds of box: first to third quartile, bottom and top line: minimum to maximum, central line: median). Statistical significance was assessed using a two-sided, unpaired Student’s t-test. c. RT-qPCR detecting the RNA expression of adCAF-associated genes in peritumoral adipose tissue (PAT) and contralateral adipose tissue (Control) from MC38 tumour-bearing mice (n = 6). Statistical significance was assessed by a two-sided, unpaired Student’s t-test. d. RT-qPCR detecting the RNA expression of adCAF-associated TFs in PAT and contralateral adipose tissue from MC38 tumour-bearing mice (n = 6). Statistical significance was assessed by a two-sided, unpaired Student’s t-test. e. ELISA detecting the concentration of TGF-β1 in the supernatant of MC38-derived tumours (n = 3) or normal intestinal tissue (n = 3). Statistical significance was assessed using a two-sided, unpaired Student’s t-test. f. Representative images of the morphology of mouse adipose progenitor cells (mAPCs) treated with mouse TGF-β1 protein. g. Western blot analysis detecting the expression of adCAF marker genes (MDK) in mAPCs treated with mouse TGF-β1 protein at concentrations of 5 or 10 ng/mL. Panel created with BioRender: a, Huaiqiang, J. https://biorender.com/y65a209 (2026).