Fig. 2

Characterization of tenocyte subclusters and TSPC across different statuses in the human tendon. A t-SNE visualization of the subclusters of tenocytes and TSPC. B The proportions of 10 tenocyte subpopulations and TSPC in normal and diseased tendons. C A cell-level heatmap reveals the normalized expression of DEGs for each cluster defined. D Heatmap of gene expression regulation by transcription factors applying SCENIC for each tenocyte subcluster and TSPC. E, F Immunohistochemical staining of NR2F2 in normal and diseased samples. G Volcano plot showing the DEGs between two statues of tenocytes and TSPC. The x-axis represents highly expressed genes in normal cells, and the y-axis represents highly expressed genes in diseased cells. H GO and KEGG enrichment analysis of DEGs in tenocytes and TSPC between normal and lesioned tendons. I GSEA enrichment plots for representative signaling pathways upregulated in tenocytes and TSPC of diseased samples, compared to normal samples. J Gene–gene interaction networks between DEGs in tenocytes and TSPC of the normal group and tenocytes and TSPC of the diseased group