Michael T H Ng, Rowie Borst, Hamez Gacaferi, Sarah Davidson, Jessica E Ackerman, Peter A Johnson, Caio C Machado, Ian Reekie, Moustafa Attar, Dylan Windell, Mariola Kurowska-Stolarska, Lucy MacDonald, Stefano Alivernini, Micon Garvilles, Kathrin Jansen, Ananya Bhalla, Angela Lee, James Charlesworth, Rajat Chowdhury, Paul Klenerman, Kate Powell, Carl-Philip Hackstein, Dominic Furniss, Jonathan Rees, Derek Gilroy, Mark Coles, Andrew J Carr, Stephen N Sansom, Christopher D Buckley, Stephanie G Dakin
Frozen shoulder is a spontaneously self-resolving chronic inflammatory fibrotic human disease, which distinguishes the condition from most fibrotic diseases that are progressive and irreversible. Using single-cell analysis, we identify pro-inflammatory MERTKlow CD48+ macrophages and MERTK + LYVE1 + MRC1+ macrophages enriched for negative regulators of inflammation which co-exist in frozen shoulder capsule tissues. Micro-cultures of patient-derived cells identify integrin-mediated cell-matrix interactions between MERTK+ macrophages and pro-resolving DKK3+ and POSTN+ fibroblasts, suggesting that matrix remodelling plays a role in frozen shoulder resolution...
February 19, 2024: Nature Communications