Integrated spatial multiomics reveals fibroblast fate during tissue repair.
Level 5 - mechanism / opinion, no new human data
Preclinical animal model (transgenic lineage tracing in stented mouse wounds) and multiomic sequencing.
PubMed 34620713 · doi:10.1073/pnas.2110025118
What was done
The authors used a stented wound model and multiple Rainbow transgenic mouse lines to perform lineage tracing of fibroblasts during skin repair. They integrated single-cell chromatin profiling and gene expression assays with spatial transcriptomics to model fibroblast epigenomic and transcriptomic dynamics across time and space.
What was found
The abstract reports no numerical metrics or effect sizes. Qualitatively, the integrated spatial multiomics platform imputed temporospatial fibroblast epigenomic profiles and mapped cell trajectories during migration, proliferation, and differentiation, enabling a reexamination of the canonical phases of tissue repair.
Why it matters
Mapping fibroblast fate at single-cell and spatial resolution clarifies the regulatory mechanisms driving scar formation versus tissue regeneration, establishing a framework for future wound-healing therapeutics.
Limits
No quantitative data, sample sizes (number of animals, replicates, or sequenced cells), or statistical metrics are reported in the abstract. Findings rely on an animal model and computationally imputed epigenomes, which may not fully reflect human clinical wound healing or chronic non-healing wound environments.
Cited by
- supports In mouse punch-biopsy studies, wound healing operates along a spatial gradient where distinct cell layers perform different functions and inner cells instruct outer cells.