The capacity of fibroblasts to produce and organize the extracellular matrix and to
communicate with other cells makes them a central component of tissue biology. Even so,
fibroblasts remain a somewhat enigmatic population. Our inability to fully comprehend these
cells is in large part due to the paucity of unique cellular markers and to their pervasive
diversity. Much of our understanding of fibroblast diversity has evolved from studies where
subpopulations of these cells have been produced without resorting to cell surface markers …