Identification of genes associated with TGF-beta/Smad3-mediated macrophage-myofibroblast transition (MMT) by single-cell RNA sequencing

In this study, we conducted single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-Seq) to identify the Smad3-dependent transcriptomes related to MMT in TGF-beta1-treated bone marrow-derived macrophages in vitro, where Smad3-KO group serves as a negative control. Overall design: The bone marrow macrophages of Smad3-WT or -KO mice were stimulated with 5ng/ml of TGF-beta1 for 5 days. Then the a-SMA negative or positive F4/80-expressing cells were flow sorted and subjected to single-cell RNA sequencing analysis.