Abstract
Fibrotic disorders are some of the most devastating and poorly treated conditions in developed nations, yet effective therapeutics are not identified for many of them. A major barrier for the identification of targets and successful clinical translation is a limited understanding of the human fibrotic microenvironment. Here, we construct a stromal cell atlas of human fibrosis at single cell resolution from patients with Dupuytren's disease, a localized fibrotic condition of the hand. A molecular taxonomy of the fibrotic milieu characterises functionally distinct stromal cell types and states, including a subset of immune regulatory ICAM1+ fibroblasts. In developing fibrosis, myofibroblasts exist along an activation continuum of phenotypically distinct populations. We also show that the tetraspanin CD82 regulates cell cycle progression and can be used as a cell surface marker of myofibroblasts. These findings have important implications for targeting core pathogenic drivers of human fibrosis.