Fig. 3: Regulatory signalling of FB phenotypic transformation.

a Heatmap of the CellChat signalling in each FB subcluster. The left panel shows the outgoing signalling patterns (expression weight value of signalling molecules) and the right panel shows the incoming signalling patterns (expression weight value of signalling receptors). A gradient of white to dark green indicates low to high expression weight value in the heatmap. b Bubble diagram of the top activated IPA pathway in each FB subcluster. A gradient of light blue to red indicates inhibition to activation of the term. The size of the bubble indicates the P-value from high to low. c The top candidate master regulators and their target genes for the FB1 subcluster. The bubble size indicates the weight from high to low. d Violin plot combined with box plot showing the expression level of the genes downstream of the WNT pathway between normal male and ED patients. The housekeeping gene GAPDH is also listed as a reference. Box plots indicate median (middle line), 25th, 75th percentile (box) and 5th and 95th percentile (whiskers) as well as outliers (single points). The statistical analysis was made by Wilcoxon (Mann–Whitney) rank-sum test; two-tailed; the confidence interval is 95%. e The morphology of cultured FBs after SKL2001 (P < 0.0001) or ICG-001 treatment (P = 0.0015). Data are shown as mean ± SD. The scale bar represents 10 µm. The statistical analysis was made by ANOVA with Tukey’s multiple comparisons test; two-tailed; the confidence interval is 95%. f The statistical analysis of cell count in the group treated with SKL2001 (P = 0.016) or ICG-001 (P = 0.0002) for 7 days, data were shown as mean ± SD, n = 3 independent experiments. The statistical analysis was made by ANOVA with Tukey’s multiple comparisons test; two-tailed; the confidence interval is 95%. g Volcano plot showing the DEGs between FBs treated with SKL2001 and negative controls by RNA sequencing.