Novel CAF-identifiers via transcriptomic analysis in oral cancer patients

BackgroundCancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs), a prominent component of the tumor microenvironment, plays an important role in tumor development, invasion, and drug resistance. The expression of distinct "CAF markers," which separates CAFs from normal fibroblasts and epithelial cells, have traditionally been used to identify them. These commonly used CAF markers have been reported to differ greatly across microenvironmental subpopulations even within a cancer site. MethodsUsing an unbiased data analysis approach utilizing publicly available and in-house gene expression data from patient derived novel CAF cells, we identified a collection of markers in oral cancer to distinguish CAF populations from tumor epithelia and normal oral fibroblasts. ResultsCOL1A1, SPARC, COL1A2, COL3A1 and TIMP-1 were identified as potential markers which can be utilized to differentiate cancer associated fibroblast from all other cell types including normal fibroblasts in oral cancer.