Normal murine fibroblasts from the colon

In the colon, a single-layered epithelium lines the crypts, which descend into the underlying mucosa. Surrounding the crypts lies a large network of fibroblasts with diverse functions, including extracellular matrix (ECM) production and stem cell maintenance. However, functional diversity of those cells remains unexplored. To address fibroblast heterogeneity in colon homeostasis, we conducted single-cell RNA sequencing on epithelium-stripped colonic mucosal samples of aSMACre:mTmG-reporter mouse. We found 6 clusters of fibroblasts. Overall design: Experiment was done on the tissue from colon isolated from an aSMACre:mTmG mouse, injected 5 consecutive days with Tamoxifen (50 mg/kg) and analyzed 2 days after.