Fig. 3: Early dermal fibroblasts and macrophages potentially contribute to scarless skin healing.

a, Dot plot showing variance-scaled, mean expression (dot colour) and per cent of expressing cells (dot size) of DEGs by prenatal (anti-inflammatory and immune suppression) and adult skin fibroblasts (pro-inflammatory and immune activation)¹⁰. b, Matrix plot showing variance-scaled, mean expression (colour) of Milo-generated DEGs (grouped by function) by gestational age (grouped PCW) in WNT2⁺ fibroblasts. Labels in bold indicate genes selectively referenced in text. c, Bar plot showing cell type co-location, indicated by positive Pearson correlation coefficients calculated between per-spot normalized cell type abundances, for selected cell type pairs (macrophages and WNT2⁺ fibroblasts). Pearson correlation coefficients were calculated across all skin-covered spots of Visium samples; each sample is shown by an individual bar. d, Spatial distribution of LYVE1⁺ macrophages and WNT2⁺ fibroblasts (top two rows) and of TML macrophages and WNT2⁺ fibroblasts (bottom two rows) (representative 8 PCW samples). Predicted cell abundances shown as the sum of two-colour gradients per spot (left; scale bars, 100 µm) or averaged across all spots located at the same distance from tissue border (right; mean (line) ± 2 s.e.m. (shaded area)). Dotted line indicates tissue border. e, Immunofluorescence (representative 10 PCW prenatal skin cryosections) showing LYVE1⁺ macrophage (CD45⁺LYVE1⁺) co-locating with fibroblasts (VIM⁺). Scale bars, 50 µm. f, Dot plot showing variance-scaled, mean expression (dot colour) and per cent of expressing cells (dot size) of genes (grouped by function) upregulated by TML macrophages in prenatal and adult skin macrophages. Labels in bold indicate genes selectively referenced in text. g, Bar plot showing cell type co-location, indicated by positive Pearson correlation coefficients calculated between per-spot normalized cell type abundances, for selected cell type pairs (TML macrophage and neural cells). Pearson correlation coefficients were calculated across all skin spots of Visium samples; each sample is shown by an individual bar. For details on statistics and reproducibility, see Methods.