Fig. 5

Single-cell analysis revealed cellular interactions between DH myeloma and BME cells. A UMAP plot displaying CD138-negative BME cells colored by cell type, with schematic overview for spatial distribution of major cell types. B Gene expression dot plot of key marker genes for individual BME cell subsets. C Point-density UMAP plot comparing cell composition between healthy donors (left) and DHMM (right). D Bar plot showing cell type fractions in healthy donors (left) and DHMM (right) individually. Compared to nPC, the red bars represent a significant upregulation in proportion, while the green bars indicate a significant downregulation in DHMM. E Cellular interactions between DH myeloma and BME cell subsets based on ligand-receptor expression, ordered by detected interactions. F Dot plot illustrating the gene expression of ligand-receptor pairs. Left panel depicted expression in nPCs/DH myeloma cells, while the right panel showed expression in BME cell subsets. Only interactions that are upregulated between DH myeloma cells and immune cell types in comparison to nPCs are displayed. Inflammatory cytokine interactions are highlighted in pink. G Gene expression dot plot showing exhaustion signature score levels in T/NK-cell subpopulations between healthy donors and DHMM