Journal: bioRxiv

Article Title: Regulatory T cells clonally expand and contribute to stromal cell function in fibrotic response to synthetic implants

doi: 10.64898/2026.01.05.697727

Figure Lengend Snippet: A) Scaled average expression (color) and percentage of expressing cells (dot size) of secreted ligands in each Treg cluster. B) Schematic of communication analysis from Tregs to fibroblasts and endothelial cells from the CD45-enriched scRNAseq data from Ruta et al. C) Communication score summarizing inferred signaling from Treg clusters to fibroblast and endothelial populations from (B). D) Activation of TFs in Treg to fibroblast network by fibroblast subcluster. E) Network plot illustrating inferred Treg to fibroblast signaling mediated by Sox family TFs with nodes representing sending clusters, ligands, receptors, TFs, and receiving clusters. Node size and edge thickness correspond to number of connections. F) Chord diagram showing connections from receptors and Sox family TFs for each fibroblast population. G) Mean expression of most highly expressed genes in Sox4 regulon in Lrrc15 + myofibroblast cluster, with matrisome associated genes indicated in blue. H) Schematic of fibroblast co-culture, performed with fibroblasts alone, or fibroblasts with Tregs from iLN or quadricep 6 weeks after PCL implant. I) Quantification via PCR of fibroblasts RNA after co-culture for Col1a2 , Col6a1 , and Thbs4 . J) Representative images of immunofluorescence staining of DAPI (white) and collagen I (green) in fibroblast coculture wells. Scale bar = 100µm. Statistical analysis was performed for technical replicates using one-way ANOVA with Tukey’s post hoc test. p < 0.05 (*), p < 0.01 (**), p < 0.001 (***).

Article Snippet: Murine TaqMan gene expression probes were used: Rer1 (Mm00471276_m1), Col1a2 (Mm00483888_m1), Col6a1 (Mm00487160_m1), and Thbs4 (Mm00449057_m1).

Techniques: Expressing, Activation Assay, Co-Culture Assay, Immunofluorescence, Staining