Bulk and single-cell transcriptome profiling reveal the metabolic heterogeneity in gastric cancer

Abstract

Metabolic reprogramming has been defined as a key hall mark of human tumors. However, metabolic heterogeneity in gastric cancer has not been elucidated. Here we separated the TCGA-STAD dataset into two metabolic subtypes. The differences between subtypes were elaborated in terms of transcriptomics, genomics, tumor-infiltrating cells, and single-cell resolution. We found that metabolic subtype 1 is predominantly characterized by low metabolism, high immune cell infiltration. Subtype 2 is mainly characterized by high metabolism and low immune cell infiltration. From single-cell resolution, we found that the high metabolism of subtype 2 is dominated by epithelial cells. Not only epithelial cells, but also various immune cells and stromal cells showed high metabolism in subtype 2 and low metabolism in subtype 1. Our study established a classification of gastric cancer metabolic subtypes and explored the differences between subtypes from multiple dimensions, especially the single-cell resolution.