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Updated: Oct 16, 2026
3-D Cell Culture System for Studying Invasion and Evaluating Therapeutics in Bladder Cancer
Published on: September 13, 2018
Single-Cell-Informed Characterization of A Candidate S100A9-Associated Epithelial Program and Prognostic Signature in
Gang Li1, Jingmin Cui1, Xiufang Feng1
1Department of Urology, Tangshan Gongren Hospital, 063000 Tangshan, Hebei, China.
Background:
Bladder cancer exhibits substantial molecular heterogeneity, and adverse epithelial programs remain incompletely characterized at single-cell resolution. This study aimed to identify candidate epithelial programs and derive genes supporting prognostic modeling.
Methods:
Single-cell RNA sequencing data were analyzed to annotate epithelial subtypes and infer malignant populations. Bulk transcriptomic cohorts were used for Cox regression, risk-model construction, pathway analysis, immune characterization, and cell-cell communication inference. Stearoyl-CoA desaturase (SCD) was experimentally assessed in bladder cancer cells.
Results:
We identified 14 epithelial subtypes with cell-level differences across pathological T stages. C05 Epithelial-S100A9 showed basal-like features, proliferative signaling, and adverse program-level survival associations. GSE130001 showed broad C05-signature activity but no discrete C05-like subpopulation. From this program, we derived a four-gene signature comprising epoxide EPHX1, SCD, LDLR, and TSPAN8. High-risk tumors were enriched for epithelial-mesenchymal transition, collagen-associated pathways, immune-checkpoint expression, and fibroblast-related signaling. SCD knockdown reduced proliferation and migration.
Conclusions:
This study characterizes a candidate S100A9-associated epithelial program and a single-cell-informed prognostic framework linked to stromal and immune features. These findings suggest potential prognostic relevance, but independent single-cell analyses, mechanistic studies, and prospective validation remain required.