Fig. 6
Single-cell gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) enrichment analysis and natural killer (NK) cell subpopulation characterization in periodontitis peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). (A–C) Ridge plots illustrating the distribution of immune-related gene set enrichment analysis (irGSEA)-derived enrichment scores (area under the curve, AUC values) for three key Hallmark pathways-(A) interferon alpha response, (B) complement, and (C) interferon gamma response-across major PBMC cell types. (D) Uniform manifold approximation and projection (UMAP) plot of NK cell subpopulations after reclustering, with each color representing a unique NK cell subcluster. (E) Dot plot highlighting the top five marker genes for each NK cell subcluster. (F) Violin plots showing the expression levels of representative marker genes across NK subclusters. (G) UMAP plot with annotated NK subclusters (AES + NK, MTRNR2L8 + NK, HLA-DRB5 + NK, CD8A + NK, AREG + NK), showing the transcriptional heterogeneity among NK cells. (H, I) Monocle pseudotime trajectory analysis of NK cells: (H) pseudotime states for NK cells, with each color denoting a different functional trajectory state; (I) cells colored according to calculated pseudotime value, highlighting dynamic transitions among subclusters. (J) Heatmap displaying gene set variation analysis (GSVA) scores for hallmark pathway signatures across the identified NK cell subclusters.
