Identification of grade and origin specific cell populations in serous epithelial ovarian cancer by single cell RNA-seq

Abstract

Here we investigated different cell populations within ovarian cancer using single-cell RNA seq: fourteen samples from nine patients with differing grades (high grade, low grade and benign) as well as different origin sites (primary and metastatic tumor site, ovarian in origin and fallopian in origin). We were able to identify sixteen distinct cell populations with specific cells correlated to high grade tumors, low grade tumors, benign and one population unique to a patient with a breast cancer relapse. Furthermore the proportion of these populations changes from primary to metastatic in a shift from mainly epithelial cells to leukocytes with few cancer epithelial cells in the metastases. Differential gene expression shows myeloid lineage cells are the primary cell group expressing soluble factors in primary samples while fibroblasts do so in metastatic samples. The leukocytes that were captured did not seem to be suppressed through known pro-tumor cytokines from any of the cell populations. Single cell RNA-seq is necessary to de-tangle cellular heterogeneity for better understanding of ovarian cancer progression.

Fig 1. Identified cell clusters across nine patients with fourteen samples.

Fig 2. Proportions of cells making up each sample.

Top is a dendrogram grouping similar samples by cell populations. Middle is the total number of cells captured. Bottom are bar plots of each cell type. Number following colon in legend is number of cells captured for each identified cell type.