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Research Paper|Volume 13, Issue 5|pp 6565—6591

Phenotyping of immune and endometrial epithelial cells in endometrial carcinomas revealed by single-cell RNA sequencing

Yu-e Guo2, Yiran Li2, Bailian Cai1, Qizhi He3, Guofang Chen1, Mengfei Wang1, Kai Wang1, Xiaoping Wan2, Qin Yan2
  • 1Clinical and Translational Research Center, Shanghai First Maternity and Infant Hospital, Tongji University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China
  • 2Department of Gynecology, Shanghai First Maternity and Infant Hospital, Tongji University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China
  • 3Department of Pathology, Shanghai First Maternity and Infant Hospital, Tongji University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China
* Equal contribution
Received: September 16, 2020Accepted: October 27, 2020Published: January 10, 2021
https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.202288

Copyright: © 2021 Guo et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Abstract

Tumors are complex ecosystems harboring multiple cell types which might play a critical role in tumor progression and treatment response. The endometrial epithelial cell identities and immune microenvironment of endometrial carcinoma (ECC) are poorly characterized. In this study, a cellular map of endometrial carcinoma was generated by profiling 30,780 cells isolated from tumor and paratumor tissues from five patients using single-cell RNA sequencing. 7 cell types in lymphocytes, 7 types in myeloid cells and 3 types in endometrial epithelial cells were identified. Distinct CD8+ T cell states and different monocyte-macrophage populations were discovered, among which exhausted CD8+ T cells and macrophages were preferentially enriched in tumor. Both CD8+ T cells and macrophages comport with continuous activation model. Gene expression patterns examination and gene ontology enrichment analysis of endometrial epithelial cells revealed 3 subtypes: stem-like cells, secretory glandular cells and ciliated cells. Overall, our study presents a view of endometrial carcinoma at single-cell resolution that reveals the characteristics of endometrial epithelial cells in the endometrium, and provides a cellular landscape of the tumor immune microenvironment.