Fig 1: Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) cells in the bacterial meningitis (BM) refractory remission stage feature higher proportions of mDC2s and pDCs than those in the BM non-refractory remission stage. (A) Volcano plot showing the DEGs identified by bulk transcriptomic comparison between CSF cells in the BM non-refractory and refractory remission stages. The x-axis shows log twofold change (log2FC) values, and the y-axis shows negative log10 adjusted p-values (padj). Each gene is represented by a single spot. Significantly downregulated (log2FC <-1 and padj <0.05) and upregulated (log2FC =1 and padj <0.05) DEGs are represented by blue and red spots, respectively. The thresholds of log2FC and padj are plotted with dashed lines. The names of downregulated and upregulated genes with top padj values are listed next to the corresponding spots. The background colors of the gene names represent the featured CSF cell types that highly express the corresponding genes. (B) Combined dot histogram (left) and pseudocolor images (right) show the proportions of mDC2s in mononuclear (MN) cells of CSF samples in BM non-refractory and refractory remission stages. mDC2s are represented by the cell subset with CD1C-positive (CD1C+) expression within MNs. In the dot histogram, each point represents the proportion of the CD1C+ cell subset in MNs of a CSF sample. The representative CD1C expressions of MNs in CSF samples in BM S2, S3, S6, and S7 stages are shown in the pseudocolor images. The ratio of cell number in the Q3 (CD1C+) and Q4 (CD1C-) quadrants demonstrates the proportion of mDC2s in MNs. (C) Dot histogram showing the PEDF (encoded by SERPINF1) levels in supernatants of CSF samples in BM non-refractory and refractory remission stages. Each dot corresponds to the PEDF level in the supernatant of a CSF sample. *t-test, p < 0.05.