Fig. 6: Cell-cell communication dynamics.
From: Multimodal spatial transcriptomic characterization of mouse kidney injury and repair
A Significantly enriched ligand-receptor interactions among FR-PT cells, injured PT cells, fibroblast and immune cells. B Immunofluorescent staining visualized the close proximity between VCAM1 + FR-PT cells, F4/80+ macrophages and PDGFRα+ fibroblasts. C Immunofluorescent staining of ICAM1 and ITGβ2. I. F4/80+ macrophages within peritubular space on abluminal side of tubular basement membrane marked by COL4α1/2. II. ICAM1 expression in VCAM1 + LTL tubules after bilateral IRI. III. ITGβ2 + F4/80+ macrophage neighbor VCAM1+ tubules in injured kidneys. IV. Orthogonal views of a longitudinally sectioned VCAM1+ tubule and two ITGβ2 + F4/80+ macrophage. Yellow arrowhead denotes a macrophage. White arrowheads denote macrophage extensions. Scale bar = 10 μm (I, II, III) and 100 μm (IV). D, E Predicted spatial signaling directions and the amount of sender and receiver signals for the PDGF and ITGβ2 signaling pathways in the kidney. The zoom-out figure shows the spatial distribution of cell types from Xenium data. Scale bar = 100 μm F, G Heatmap of differentially expressed genes associated with PDGF and ITGβ2 pathways. H Bar plots of top enriched signaling pathways in the fibro-inflammatory niche (CN7). Wilcoxon rank-sum test, P values adjusted using Benjamini-Hochberg. I Enriched signaling activity across Visium cell neighborhoods. CN0: Loop of Henle; CN1: Glomerular Niche; CN2: Cortical Proximal Tubule; CN3: Medullary Proximal Tubule; CN4: Injured Proximal Tubule; CN5: Collecting Duct Niche; CN6: Distal Tubule Niche; CN7: Fibro-inflammatory Niche; CN8: Uro-immune Niche.
