Wound healing is a coordinated multicellular tissue response that progresses over time with distinct phases of inflammation and resolution that restore tissue integrity and homeostasis. In Cell Stem Cell, Hu et al. examine the cellular spatiotemporal response to skin wounding to identify cell-to-cell communication methods and shared transcriptional networks that lead to tissue repair. They performed single-cell transcriptional profiling of CD45+ and CD45− cells obtained from and at defined distances surrounding the wound site over a 14-day period, in which they could characterize the dynamic changes in cellular composition and gene expression programs with spatial positioning at the wound site. As wound healing progresses, distinct populations of myeloid cells appear in the wound site, accompanied by coordinated dynamic changes in the populations of stromal cells. Space–time correlation analyses revealed interactions between myeloid cells and fibroblasts and reciprocal gene programs, indicative of cell-to-cell communication, that underlie both the initial inflammatory phase and tissue resolution. Importantly, the authors compared the coordinated gene expression of wound healing with tumor microenvironments and found that some spatiotemporal myeloid–fibroblast gene programs are conserved between the wound healing process and tumors. This study provides a wealth of data that can be interrogated to identify potential cellular interactions in wound repair that are co-opted during tumorigenesis.
Original reference: Cell Stem Cell 30, 885–903 (2023)
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