Single-cell RNA-seq of alveolar myofibroblasts and other clusters
Alveolar myofibroblasts emerge during postnatal lung development and are substantially cleared following the completion of the alveolar stage of lung development. In this study, we hypothesized that alveolar myofibroblast descendants that escape apoptotic clearance are reactivated in resposne to injury during adult life. Overall design: Acta2-Cre-ERT2; tdTomatoflox and Gli1Cre-ERT2; tdTomatoflox pups received a single s.c. injection of tamoxifen at postnatal day 4 (P4), and lineage-labeled cells were FACS-sorted at various time points and subjected to scRNA-seq. In another set of mice, adult Acta2-Cre-ERT2; tdTomatoflox or Gli1Cre-ERT2; tdTomatoflox mice were treated with tamoxifen before or after being infected with PR8.