Fig. 3
Deconvolution of CD8⁺ T-cell subsets and transcription factor motif analysis. a Schematic overview of the integrative analysis framework. Single-cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq) data from the same IgAN patient cohort (GSE285335; data under review) were used to define disease-specific CD8+ T-cell subsets based on IL-7Rα expression and canonical differentiation markers. Subset signature genes were identified by differential expression analysis and mapped to promoter regions overlapping ATAC-peaks in the bulk dataset. Promoter accessibility values were converted to Z-score, and single-sample gene set enrichment analysis (ssGSEA) was performed to quantify subset-specific enrichment across individual ATAC-seq samples. Schematic created with BioRender.com. b Heatmap showing the scaled enrichment scores of four CD8+ T-cell subsets (Naïve-like+CM, IL-7Rαhigh EM, IL-7Rαmed EM, IL-7Rαlow EM) across early-stage and late-stage IgAN samples.c Comparison of ssGSEA enrichment scores for the Naïve+CM (top) and IL-7Rαlow EM (bottom) subsets between early-stage (blue) and late-stage (red) groups. Each point represents an individual patient; bars indicate mean ± SEM. Statistical significance was determined using two-tailed Student’s t-test. d Top 5 enriched Homer transcription factor motifs in the early-stage (left) and late-stage (right) groups, with consensus sequences derived from motif-matched genomic region of DARs.
