A major cause of gynecological
cancer -related deaths worldwide,
ovarian cancer is characterized by heterogeneity in both
tumor cells and the tumor microenvironment (TME). Our study aimed to characterize
tumor cell heterogeneity and the infiltration of M2 tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) in the
ovarian cancer TME by single-cell
RNA-Seq (
scRNA-Seq) analysis combined with bulk
RNA sequencing (bulk
RNA-Seq). Several highly variable genes were identified in
ovarian cancer tissues, and
tumor cell heterogeneity and infiltrating immune
tumor cell heterogeneity were characterized in
ovarian cancer cells. M2 TAMs in the TME were the predominant phenotype of TAM. Further, M2 TAM infiltration in the TME was negatively correlated with poor prognosis of
ovarian cancer patients. Four M2 TAM-associated genes (SLAMF7, GNAS, TBX2-AS1, and LYPD6) correlated with the prognostic survival of
ovarian cancer patients. Knockdown of SLAMF7 or GNAS
mRNA repressed
malignancy and
cisplatin resistance of
ovarian cancer cells.
ScRNA-Seq combined with bulk
RNA-Seq identified the same four genes associated with M2 TAMs. The prognostic risk score model based on these four genes may hold favorable predictive value for the prognosis of
ovarian cancer patients.