Systems level identification of a matrisome-associated macrophage polarization state in multi-organ fibrosis

  1. John F Ouyang  Is a corresponding author
  2. Kunal Mishra
  3. Yi Xie
  4. Harry Park
  5. Kevin Y Huang
  6. Enrico Petretto  Is a corresponding author
  7. Jacques Behmoaras  Is a corresponding author
  1. SingHealth Duke-NUS Academic Medical Centre, Singapore

Abstract

Tissue fibrosis affects multiple organs and involves a master-regulatory role of macrophages which respond to an initial inflammatory insult common in all forms of fibrosis. The recently unravelled multi-organ heterogeneity of macrophages in healthy and fibrotic human disease suggests that macrophages expressing osteopontin (SPP1), associate with lung and liver fibrosis. However, the conservation of this SPP1+ macrophage population across different tissues, and its specificity to fibrotic diseases with different etiologies remain unclear. Integrating 15 single cell RNA-sequencing datasets to profile 235,930 tissue macrophages from healthy and fibrotic heart, lung, liver, kidney, skin and endometrium, we extended the association of SPP1+ macrophages with fibrosis to all these tissues. We also identified a subpopulation expressing matrisome-associated genes (e.g., matrix metalloproteinases and their tissue inhibitors), functionally enriched for ECM remodelling and cell metabolism, representative of a matrisome-associated macrophage (MAM) polarization state within SPP1+ macrophages. Importantly, the MAM polarization state follows a differentiation trajectory from SPP1+ macrophages and is associated with a core set of regulon activity. SPP1+ macrophages without the MAM polarization state (SPP1+MAM-) show a positive association with ageing lung in mice and humans. These results suggest an advanced and conserved polarization state of SPP1+ macrophages in fibrotic tissues resulting from prolonged inflammatory cues within each tissue microenvironment.

Data availability

The current manuscript is a computational study where we meta-analyze previously published data. No new primary datasets have been generated in this manuscript.The code used in the study is publicly available at https://github.com/the-ouyang-lab/mam-reproducibility.See also MethodsThe processed Seurat object for each of the six tissues and SPP1 macrophages can be downloaded at https://zenodo.org/record/8266711 (See also Methods)DATA SET information: Details on previously published datasets are provided and described in Table 1 within the manuscript.

The following previously published data sets were used

Article and author information

Author details

  1. John F Ouyang

    Centre for Computational Biology, SingHealth Duke-NUS Academic Medical Centre, Singapore, Singapore
    For correspondence
    john.ouyang@duke-nus.edu.sg
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  2. Kunal Mishra

    Centre for Computational Biology, SingHealth Duke-NUS Academic Medical Centre, Singapore, Singapore
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  3. Yi Xie

    Centre for Computational Biology, SingHealth Duke-NUS Academic Medical Centre, Singapore, Singapore
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  4. Harry Park

    Centre for Computational Biology, SingHealth Duke-NUS Academic Medical Centre, Singapore, Singapore
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  5. Kevin Y Huang

    Centre for Computational Biology, SingHealth Duke-NUS Academic Medical Centre, Singapore, Singapore
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-2288-3620
  6. Enrico Petretto

    Centre for Computational Biology, SingHealth Duke-NUS Academic Medical Centre, Singapore, Singapore
    For correspondence
    enrico.petretto@duke-nus.edu.sg
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  7. Jacques Behmoaras

    Centre for Computational Biology, SingHealth Duke-NUS Academic Medical Centre, Singapore, Singapore
    For correspondence
    jacquesb@duke-nus.edu.sg
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-5170-2606

Funding

Ministry of Education - Singapore (T2EP30221-0013)

  • Enrico Petretto

Ministry of Education - Singapore (2022-MOET1-0003)

  • Jacques Behmoaras

National Medical Research Council (OFLCG22may-0011)

  • Enrico Petretto
  • Jacques Behmoaras

National Medical Research Council (MOH-OFYIRG21nov-0004)

  • John F Ouyang

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.

Reviewing Editor

  1. Charles Farber, University of Virginia, United States

Version history

  1. Received: December 12, 2022
  2. Accepted: September 13, 2023
  3. Accepted Manuscript published: September 14, 2023 (version 1)

Copyright

© 2023, Ouyang et al.

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.

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  1. John F Ouyang
  2. Kunal Mishra
  3. Yi Xie
  4. Harry Park
  5. Kevin Y Huang
  6. Enrico Petretto
  7. Jacques Behmoaras
(2023)
Systems level identification of a matrisome-associated macrophage polarization state in multi-organ fibrosis
eLife 12:e85530.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.85530

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