Liver Stromal Cells Restrict Macrophage Maturation and Stromal IL-6 Limits the Differentiation of Cirrhosis-linked Macrophages

Liver disease is the cause of approximately two million deaths globally per year, yet effective therapies are lacking. Iterative tissue injury leads to prolonged inflammation, extensive fibrosis, and the possible progression to deadly chronic-end stage disease, such as cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). In this study we investigated the ability of liver stromal cells to effect macrophage maturation and differentiation by using an in vitro human stromal-myeloid coculture systems and single cell RNA sequencing. Human liver tissue were disaggregated and profiled using the Chromium Single Cell 3’ Library and Gel Bead Kit v2 (10X Genomics) . In vitro human stromal-myeloid coculture systems