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Updated: Jul 16, 2025
A Portal Vein Injection Model to Study Liver Metastasis of Breast Cancer
Published on: December 26, 2016
Single-cell transcriptome analysis indicates fatty acid metabolism-mediated metastasis and immunosuppression in male
Handong Sun1, Lishen Zhang2,3,4, Zhonglin Wang5
1Jiangsu Breast Disease Center, The First Affiliated Hospital with Nanjing Medical University, 300 Guangzhou Road, 210029, Nanjing, China.
Abstract:
Male breast cancer (MBC) is a rare but aggressive malignancy with cellular and immunological characteristics that remain unclear. Here, we perform transcriptomic analysis for 111,038 single cells from tumor tissues of six MBC and thirteen female breast cancer (FBC) patients. We find that that MBC has significantly lower infiltration of T cells relative to FBC. Metastasis-related programs are more active in cancer cells from MBC. The activated fatty acid metabolism involved with FASN is related to cancer cell metastasis and low immune infiltration of MBC. T cells in MBC show activation of p38 MAPK and lipid oxidation pathways, indicating a dysfunctional state. In contrast, T cells in FBC exhibit higher expression of cytotoxic markers and immune activation pathways mediated by immune-modulatory cytokines. Moreover, we identify the inhibitory interactions between cancer cells and T cells in MBC. Our study provides important information for understanding the tumor immunology and metabolism of MBC.
