Fig. 2: Targeting fascia differentiation impairs tissue contraction and wound closure.

a, The fascia explant culture method. b, Representative bright-field images of fascia explants at indicated timepoints of culture (left) and area versus time contraction measurements (right). n = 5 from 3 biological replicates. c, Representative micrographs of fascia explants immunolabelled for PDPN, pSTAT3, RUNX2 or αSMA (left) and quantification of expressing cell fraction at 1, 3 and 6 days of culture normalized to day 1 values (right). n = 3 biological replicates. d, Representative images of fascia explants at 6 days of culture (left), contraction dynamics (top right) and total contraction values (bottom right) showing the effects of cell ablation (freeze–thawing) and different serum conditions. n = 3 (full serum and freeze–thawing) and 4 (heat-inactivated high and low serum) biological replicates. HI, heat-inactivated. Colours of the image outlines indicate treatments in the graphs. e, Representative photographs of splinted wounds on PDPN-related transgenic lines at indicated timepoints after injury (top), wound area quantification (bottom left) and contraction percentage at the indicated dpi (bottom right), showing that ablation of proinflammatory fibroblasts delays wound closure. n = 6 wounds from 3 biological replicates. WT, wild type. f, Masson’s trichrome staining of control (top left) and ablated (bottom left) 7 dpi wounds. The dotted line delimits the wound region. Arrowheads indicate the original injury site. High-magnification images of control (top middle) and ablated (bottom middle) 7 dpi wounds immunolabelled for αSMA. Right, myofibroblast ratio in wounds. n = 4 (control) and 5 wounds from 3 biological replicates. Colours of the image outlines indicate treatments in the graph. Two-tailed t-tests. Scale bars: 2 mm (b,d), 500 μm (f, left) and 50 μm (c and f, middle).