Transcriptomic profile at single cell level of adult lungs expressing exogenous BCL2 driven by three mesenchymal cell-specific drivers
A transient mesenchymal cell in the lung called alveolar myofibroblast (AMF) plays a key role in alveolar formation during postnatal development. However,  AMFs are cleared from the alveoli upon lung maturation. We induce exogenous BCL2 expression in these cells using three lineage-specific drivers (Myh11-CreER, PdgfraCreER, and PdgfrbCreER) to prevent AMF clearance. We use scRNA seq to analyze the transcriptomic changes of AMFs upon BCL2 expression and subsequent persistence in the lung. Additionally, we evaluated the consequences driven by persistent AMFs in other cell lineages at a transcriptional level. Overall design: Lung cells from mice that overexpressed the prosurvival protein BCL2 (Rosa26 Bcl2/+) in mesenchymal cells were compared to control littermates. Epithelia (ECAD+), endothelial (ICAM2+), immune(CD45+) and mesenchymal cells (ECAD-/ICAM-/CD45-) from adult mouse lungs were isolated using Fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS). The transcriptome of each lineage was analyzed using RNA -single cell sequencing.