Fig. 5
Cell Dynamics of tex, pf-Trm, tumour-reactive CD8⁺ T cells and bystander CD8⁺ T cells in Tumour Tissues During CRC Progression. (A) t-SNE plots illustrating the distribution of CD8⁺ T cells across Stage I to IV CRC, stratified by TIL enrichment based on PD-1, Tim-3, CD39, and CD103 expression. Tex, pf-Trm, Tumour-reactive CD8⁺ T cells and bystander CD8⁺ T cells populations are highlighted. (B) Frequency of PD-1, Tim-3, and CD39 within CD103⁺CD4⁺ subsets. (C) Frequency of PD-1, Tim-3, and CD39 within CD103⁺CD8⁺ subsets. (D) PD-1, Tim-3, and CD103 expression in CD8⁺ T cells in early (Stages I–II) vs. advanced (Stages III–IV) CRC.(E) Expression levels of Tim-3⁻PD-1⁺, Tim-3⁺PD-1⁺, Tim-3⁺PD-1⁻, and Tim-3⁻PD-1⁻ subsets within CD103⁺CD4⁺ T cells, and pf-Trm (Tim-3⁻PD-1⁺), Tex (Tim-3⁺PD-1⁺), Tim-3⁺PD-1⁻ within CD103⁺CD8⁺ T cells in CRC patients. (F) Expression levels of PD-1 and Tim-3 in tumour-reactive CD8⁺ T cells and bystander CD8⁺ T cells in CRC patients.(G) Expression levels of PD-1, Tim-3, CD39, and CD103 across CRC Stages II, III, and IV. (H) Proportions of Tex (PD-1⁺Tim-3⁺CD103⁺) and pf-Trm (PD-1⁺Tim-3⁺CD103⁻) among CD8⁺ T cells.(I) Proportions of tumour-reactive CD8⁺ T cells (CD39⁺CD103⁺ and CD39⁺CD103⁻) and bystander CD8⁺ T cells (CD39⁻CD103⁺ and CD39⁻CD103⁻).CRC, colorectal cancer; Tex, terminally exhausted T cells; pf-Trm, precursor exhausted tissue-resident memory T cells; Trm, tissue-resident memory T cells; TIL, tumour-infiltrating lymphocyte; PD-1, programmed cell death protein 1; Tim-3, T cell immunoglobulin and mucin-domain containing-3; CD39, ectonucleoside triphosphate diphosphohydrolase-1; t-SNE, t-distributed stochastic neighbor embedding. Data shown as mean ± SD. Depending on data normality and variance homogeneity, ANOVA, Welch’s ANOVA, or Kruskal–Wallis test with appropriate post hoc comparisons was used in B, C and E. Two-tailed unpaired Student’s t-tests was used in D, *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001.
