{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,13]],"date-time":"2026-08-13T17:35:48Z","timestamp":1786642548101,"version":"build-2736575974"},"reference-count":41,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"16","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,13]],"date-time":"2026-08-13T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1786579200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Int. J. Mol. Sci.","IJMS"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Breast cancer is a highly heterogeneous malignancy in which fatty acid metabolism plays a critical yet insufficiently characterized role in tumor progression, immune evasion, and treatment resistance. To address this gap, we performed a comprehensive re-analysis of single-cell transcriptomic data from 62 breast cancer patients using the Non-negative Matrix Factorization (NMF) algorithm to delineate tumor cell subpopulations at single-cell resolution. Through Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA), we identified the tumor cell subgroup most significantly associated with fatty acid metabolism. Subsequent Slingshot trajectory analysis revealed STARD10 as a key regulatory gene in fatty acid metabolic reprogramming along tumor cell differentiation trajectories. In vitro functional experiments further validated that STARD10 plays a functional role in modulating fatty acid metabolism in breast cancer cells. These findings establish STARD10 as a novel molecular marker and potential therapeutic target in breast cancer, offering new insights into the metabolic mechanisms underlying tumor heterogeneity and disease progression.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/ijms27167237","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,13]],"date-time":"2026-08-13T17:01:35Z","timestamp":1786640495000},"page":"7237","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Single-Cell Analysis Reveals STARD10 as a Fatty Acid Metabolism Regulator of Breast Cancer Progression via the PI3K\/Akt Pathway"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"27","author":[{"given":"Yining","family":"Han","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Epidemiology and Health Statistics, Dalian Medical University, Dalian 116044, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jiacheng","family":"Fan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Epidemiology and Health Statistics, Dalian Medical University, Dalian 116044, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yue","family":"Xi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Epidemiology and Health Statistics, Dalian Medical University, Dalian 116044, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Pengxiang","family":"Zhu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Epidemiology and Health Statistics, Dalian Medical University, Dalian 116044, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Qiyue","family":"Sun","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Epidemiology and Health Statistics, Dalian Medical University, Dalian 116044, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-1786-9154","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Xiaofeng","family":"Li","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Epidemiology and Health Statistics, Dalian Medical University, Dalian 116044, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,13]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","first-page":"229","article-title":"Global cancer statistics 2022: GLOBOCAN estimates of incidence and mortality worldwide for 36 cancers in 185 countries","volume":"74","author":"Bray","year":"2024","journal-title":"CA Cancer J. 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