Spatial transcriptomics and scRNA-sequencing on gastrocnemius muscle form B6-mdx and D2-mdx mice

We investigated the cell-type composition of muscle domains that associate with muscle degeneration severity in two mouse models of human DMD, namely the B6.mdx and D2.mdx. We first combined immunofluorescence-based histological analysis and spatial transcriptomics to highlight specific muscle tissue clusters that display dystrophic features with necrotic fibers, inflammatory cell infiltration and increased fibrosis. Using single-cell RNA-sequencing reference and spatial deconvolution, we profiled cell types and states within each dystrophic domain, thereby identifying the enrichment for specific cell subpopulations in these spatial clusters.