FIGURE 1 from Cancer-associated Fibroblast–specific Expression of the Matricellular Protein CCN1 Coordinates Neovascularization and Stroma Deposition in Melanoma Metastasis

CCN1 is expressed by a subset of CAFs and correlates with expression of angiogenic markers. A,CCN1 expression correlates with bulk tumor stromal scores. Scatterplot representation of stromal score (ESTIMATE algorithm) to CCN1 expression in bulk primary melanoma tumors from TCGA (n = 82). The linear regression line is shown in blue, and the 95% confidence interval is shown as a gray area around the regression line. Spearman correlation coefficient and corresponding P value are displayed in the bottom right corner. B,CCN1 gene expression (TPM/10) in melanoma tumor single cells [malignant cells (n = 2,018), T cells (n = 3,321), B cells (n = 818), macrophages (n = 420), natural killer cells (n = 92), endothelial cells (n = 104), and CAFs (n = 106)]. Boxes represent interquartile ranges, and points represent individual sample values. C, Heat map representation of the 50 genes with the highest SD in CAF single cells from human melanoma tumors. CCN1 expression is higher in a particular subset of CAFs (GSE115978). Columns represent single CAF cells, and rows represent Z-score mRNA expression (TPM/10). The horizontal bar denotes different melanoma samples. Scatterplots show CAF-specific CCN1 scores versus gene set enrichment of angiogenesis (D), or EMT gene sets (E; GAGE t statistics) of melanoma bulk primary melanoma tumors from TCGA samples (n = 82). The linear regression line is shown in blue, and the 95% confidence interval is shown as a gray area around the regression line. Spearman correlation coefficient and associated P values are displayed in the bottom right corner.