Characteristic genes and immune landscape of interstitial cystitis

We screened the feature genes, CCL18, MMP10 and WIF1, among the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) by three different machine learning algorithms. They showed good diagnostic performance in both training and testing cohorts and were potential diagnostic markers for IC. We paint the immune landscape of IC. In IC tissue, immune cell subtypes infiltrated extensively. Most immune cell subtypes were up-regulated in IC tissue, including mast cells, activated CD4 T cells, and regulatory T cells that suppress immune responses. MMP10 and CCL18 had positive correlation to ICI, while WIF was negatively correlated with ICI. MMP10 and CCL18 may be the driving factors of immune response or their expression levels may be increased by immune response. The effect of characteristic genes of IC on immune cell subtypes still needed to be further explored.