Macrophages in the infarcted heart acquire a fibrogenic phenotype, expressing matricellular proteins, but do not undergo fibroblast conversion.

ABSTRACT: Although some studies have suggested that macrophages may secrete structural collagens, and convert to fibroblast-like cells, macrophage to fibroblast transdifferentiation in infarcted and remodeling hearts remains controversial. Our study uses linage tracing approaches and single cell transcriptomics to examine whether macrophages undergo fibroblast conversion, and to characterize the extracellular matrix expression profile of myeloid cells in myocardial infarction. To examine whether infarct macrophages undergo fibroblast conversion, we identified macrophage-derived progeny using the inducible CX3CR1^CreER mice crossed with the PDGFRα^EGFP reporter line for reliable fibroblast identification. The abundant fibroblasts that infiltrated the infarcted myocardium after 7 a

SUBMITTER: Li R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11534516 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature