In addition, through the correlation analysis of immune cells markers in HNSCC patients by TIMER database (http://timer.cistrome.org/), we found that patients with high PLIN3 showed increased TGF-β+ regulatory T cells and CD68+ TAMs, while diminishing CD8+ T cells and NOS2+ M1 macrophage (Fig. 2o), indicating that PLIN3 favored the establishment of a unique and highly immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment (TME). Here, NOS2 is linked to head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.