Fig. 4: Rare cell types and their distribution in the airways.

A Maps of rare cell types detected with SCRINSHOT from three anatomical regions (donor 4), respresentative images from three biological replicates. Scale bar 200 µm. Lu lumen. Raw SCRINSHOT signal images of cells labelled with letters (a-f) are shown in Supplementary Fig. 12B. B Heatmap of gene expression demonstrating unique and overlapping marker genes within the detected rare cell types from four donors. At least two out of four donors demonstrated each cell type in each anatomical region, except NE-GHRL population. Number of cells quantified (180): ionocytes—41, tuft-like:—27 (including tuft—24 and rare tuft-like—3), NE-GHRL—9, NE-PCSK1N—32, NE-ASCL1—40, NE-GRP—31. C Immunofluorescent staining for GHRL (green) and GRP (magenta) of two subtypes of neuroendocrine cells, as well as epithelial membrane marker CDH1 (white) on top of nuclei (DAPI, blue), distal lung of donor 4, which had largest number of neuroendocrine cells from three stained samples. Areas (a) and (b) are crops from a larger image in Supplementary Fig 12D. Scale bar: 10 µm. D Bar plot of the number of the detected cells per total airway epithelial cell number (shown in %) from four donors, error bars: standard deviation. Individual data points represent biological replicates (only donors with airway larger than 2 mm of basal membrane length). Arrow: NE-GHRLpos cells appearing only in distal lung. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.