Primed inflammatory response by fibroblast subset is necessary for proper oral and cutaneous wound healing.

Fibroblasts are ubiquitous mesenchymal cells that exhibit considerable molecular and functional heterogeneity. Besides maintaining stromal integrity, oral fibroblast subsets are thought to play an important role in host-microbe interaction during injury repair, which is not well explored in vivo. Here, we characterize a subset of fibroblast lineage labeled by paired-related homeobox-1 promoter activity (Prx1Cre) in oral mucosa and skin and demonstrate these fibroblasts readily respond to microbial products to facilitate the normal wound healing process.