Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Karolinska Institutet, SE-171 77, Stockholm, Sweden.
Department of Neurobiology, Care sciences and Society, Karolinska Institutet, SE-14183, Huddinge, Sweden.
Nat Commun. 2022 Jun 14;13(1):3409. doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-30633-9.
Fibroblasts, the principal cell type of connective tissue, secrete extracellular matrix components during tissue development, homeostasis, repair and disease. Despite this crucial role, the identification and distinction of fibroblasts from other cell types are challenging and laden with caveats. Rapid progress in single-cell transcriptomics now yields detailed molecular portraits of fibroblasts and other cell types in our bodies, which complement and enrich classical histological and immunological descriptions, improve cell class definitions and guide further studies on the functional heterogeneity of cell subtypes and states, origins and fates in physiological and pathological processes. In this review, we summarize and discuss recent advances in the understanding of fibroblast identification and heterogeneity and how they discriminate from other cell types.
成纤维细胞是结缔组织的主要细胞类型，在组织发育、稳态、修复和疾病过程中分泌细胞外基质成分。尽管它们具有至关重要的作用，但识别和区分成纤维细胞与其他细胞类型仍然具有挑战性，并且存在许多限制。单细胞转录组学的快速发展现在为我们体内的成纤维细胞和其他细胞类型提供了详细的分子特征，这些特征补充和丰富了经典的组织学和免疫学描述，改善了细胞类别的定义，并指导了对细胞亚群和状态、起源和命运在生理和病理过程中的功能异质性的进一步研究。在这篇综述中，我们总结和讨论了对成纤维细胞鉴定和异质性的理解的最新进展，以及它们如何与其他细胞类型区分开来。
