Single cell transcriptomes of genetic landscape from actinic keratosis to cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma

Here, we performed scRNA-seq to compare the transcriptomes of individual cells from three groups: (1) healthy sun-exposed skin; (2) AK samples; (3) cSCC samples. A total of 81792 cells from 8 AK samples, 3 cSCC samples and 3 control skin tissue were characterized, which comprising representatives from each of the major dermal cell types. Our results demonstrate the heterogeneity within tissues/patients and corroborated the effect of the tumor environment during carcinogenesis, especially immune cell populations. Additionally, we identified a list of gene expression changes that affected several known cancerous pathways, with potential evolution trajectory from a subset of AK premalignant cells to cSCC cells. Our findings will improve current understanding about the mechanism of AK-cSCC progression, and are potentially valuable in providing novel precautionary/ therapeutic markers.