Fig. 6

Pathological cell-cell interactions in IgAN progression. (A–C) These scatter plots illustrated the dominant sender (source) and receiver (target) cell populations in the (A) control, (B) normal eGFR IgAN, and (C) low eGFR IgAN groups, respectively. The x-axis represented the total outgoing communication probability, while the y-axis indicated the total incoming communication probability associated with each cell type. The dot size was proportional to the number of inferred communication links (both outgoing and incoming) for each cell population. The dot colors distinguished the different cell types. (D–E) These heatmaps provided a detailed view of the differential interaction strengths. The colored bar plots on the top represented the sum of values in each column (incoming signaling), while the bar plots at right side showed the sum of values in each row (outgoing signaling). The color scale indicated changes in signaling strength: red represented increased signaling in (D) the normal eGFR IgAN group compared to the control group, and (E) the low eGFR IgAN group compared to the normal eGFR IgAN group. Blue indicated decreased signaling. The rows and columns corresponded to the sender (source) and receiver (target) cell types, respectively. (F–H) These heatmaps displayed the total number of interactions inferred by CellphoneDB in the (F) control, (G) normal eGFR IgAN, and (H) low eGFR IgAN groups. The rows represented the sender (source) cell types, while the columns denoted the receiver (target) cell types. The color scale indicated the number of interactions, with red representing a higher number and blue indicating fewer interactions. Collectively, these analyses revealed the dynamic changes in the intercellular communication landscape during the progression of IgAN, as captured by the CellChat and CellphoneDB computational approaches.