Fig. 4: Multiplexed GATA6 and KRT17 IF identifies complex intratumor heterogeneity in post-CTX samples.
From: Persister cell phenotypes contribute to poor patient outcomes after neoadjuvant chemotherapy in PDAC
a, Multiplexed IF images of post-CTX samples stained with GATA6 (red), KRT17 (green) and DAPI (blue). Left, whole-section images; scale bar, 200 μm. Arrows demarcate foci representing dominant GATA6 staining (GD), dominant KRT17 staining (KD) and ‘hybrid’ GATA6+KRT17+ (H) staining. Regions of interest (ROIs) demarcated by white boxes and labeled by i, ii or iii are shown at higher magnification on the right; scale bar, 20 μm. b, Kaplan–Meier survival analysis for high, medium and low ‘hybrid’ GATA6+KRT17+ protein expression tertiles in post-CTX PDAC-HD. Participant numbers for each group are provided under ‘Numbers at risk’. A log-rank P value of ≤0.05 is considered significant. c, Ternary plot showing the percent tumor content of GATA6 and KRT17 cell populations in chemo-naive (n = 69) and post-CTX (n = 42) patients. d, Pie stat plots and bar chart showing enrichment of GATA6hiKRT17hi ‘hybrid’ persister phenotypes in chemo-naive (n = 69) and post-CTX (n = 42) samples. Pearson chi-squared test of independence (two sided) is highly significant (P = 0) given a large sample size (nobs = 7,545,622 cells). e, Box plots showing the relative protein expression of GATA6/KRT17 cell phenotypes post-CTX GEM (n = 18) or after mFFX (n = 24). Kruskal–Wallis rank-sum test (two-sided) P values are provided in the plot. Box plots show the median (line), the IQR between the 25th and 75th percentiles (box) and 1.5× the IQR ± the upper and lower quartiles. f, Bar stat plot showing the percentage of GATA6/KRT17 cell phenotypes in post-CTX samples (n = 42). g, Bar stat plots showing the percentage of GATA6/KRT17 cell phenotypes enriched in samples treated preoperatively with either GEM (n = 18) or mFFX (n = 24) and associated with long and short survival. With respect to bar stat plots, Pearson chi-squared test of independence (two sided) is highly significant (P = 0) given the large sample sizes (nobs = 385,581 cells for GEM/mFFX in f, and nobs = 226,400 cells for GEM and nobs = 91,049 cells for mFFX in g). The P values from a one-sample proportions test (two sided) are displayed on the top of each bar. P values were not adjusted for multiple testing.
