Sphingolipids control dermal fibroblast heterogeneity

Publication Name

Science

Abstract

Human cells produce thousands of lipids that change during cell differentiation and can vary across individual cells of the same type. However, we are only starting to characterize the function of these cell-to-cell differences in lipid composition. Here, we measured the lipidomes and transcriptomes of individual human dermal fibroblasts by coupling high-resolution mass spectrometry imaging with single-cell transcriptomics. We found that the cell-to-cell variations of specific lipid metabolic pathways contribute to the establishment of cell states involved in the organization of skin architecture. Sphingolipid composition is shown to define fibroblast subpopulations, with sphingolipid metabolic rewiring driving cell-state transitions. Therefore, cell-to-cell lipid heterogeneity affects the determination of cell states, adding a new regulatory component to the self-organization of multicellular systems.

Open Access Status

This publication is not available as open access

Volume

376

Issue

6590

Article Number

eabh1623

Funding Number

R01AR039190

Funding Sponsor

National Institutes of Health

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Link to publisher version (DOI)

http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.abh1623