Fig. 2

Functional and metabolic dysregulation of T&NK cell subpopulations in obese CRC. A UMAP plots of the T cell subsets, colored by cell subsets. B Heatmap showing the expression of canonical T/NK cell marker genes. C Tissue prevalence of each T cell subset estimated by Ro/e score, in which Ro/e denotes the ratio of observed to expected cell number. D Signature scores for CD8⁺GZMK⁺T cells. Comparisons were performed by unpaired two-tailed Student’s t-test. Significance levels are expressed as *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01 and ***P < 0.001. E The Spearman correlation analysis between the scores of cytotoxicity score and glycolysis metabolism score in CRC samples. F Violin plots showing immune checkpoints expression of CD4⁺T cells from obese CRC and non-obese CRC samples. G Exhaustion signature scores for CD4⁺FOXP3⁺T and CD4⁺CXCL13⁺T cells. Comparisons were performed by unpaired two-tailed Student’s t-test. Significance levels are expressed as *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01 and ***P < 0.001. H Volcano plot showing the DEGs of NK cells in obese CRC and non-obese CRC. Red and blue represent DEGs that are up—and down-regulated in obese CRC, respectively. I GSEA analysis comparing transcriptomic profiles of NK cells in obese CRC and non-obese CRC, with positive scores indicating enrichment in the obese CRC group, and negative scores indicating enrichment in the non-obese CRC group. NES, normalized enrichment score. J Heatmap showing the expression of NK cells activating and inhibitory receptors