Fig. 6

The interactions between fibroblast and macrophage subpopulations. (a) Heatmap showed the intercellular crosstalk between macrophage and fibroblast subpopulations during LTS procession. The Color represented the frequency of cell–cell communication, ranging from low (blue) to high (red). (b) Dot plots displayed the ligand-receptor interaction pairs between CIRF/EMTF fibroblast and macrophage subpopulations. Dot color indicated the communication probability, from low (black) to high (red), while dot size was inversely proportional to the p-value. (c) Network plots illustrated the interaction number between fibroblast and macrophage subpopulations. Each dot represented a single cell subpopulation. The width of the lines connecting cell clusters was proportional to the number of interactions, and the color of the lines corresponded to the source cell cluster. The numbers on the connecting lines quantified the significant ligand-receptor pairs between any two cell clusters. Loops indicated autocrine signaling circuits. (d) Network plot showed the overall interaction networks between fibroblast and macrophage subpopulations, summarizing the broader intercellular communication