The F1: Secretory regenerative population expressed high levels of F1 genes and upregulated expression of CRABP1, CYP26B1, and WNT5A. CRABP1 is a marker of superficial/upper wound fibroblasts,(Abbasi et al. 2021) which are thought to be the source of regenerative potential of wound-induced hair follicle neogenesis.(Phan et al. 2021) CYP26B1 is also localised in the upper wound margins in mice.(Correa-Gallegos et al. 2023)
CRABP1 and CYP26B1 both reduce retinoic acid concentration (CRABP1 is a retinoic acid binding protein and CYP26B1 is a retinoic acid degrading enzyme), suggesting the existence of a similar retinoic acid gradient in humans to that reported in mice.(Correa-Gallegos et al. 2023)
In xenium, we did not distinguish F1: Superficial and F1: Superficial regenerative populations. However, we kept the "F1: Superficial regenerative" name as these cells were marked as uncertain in the integration of disease vs non-lesional fibroblasts.
