Our findings suggest that lung LECs are not a uniform population but instead comprise molecularly distinct and spatially organized lymphatic vessels, possibly with specialized functions. These results lay the groundwork for further studies geared toward understanding the roles of cellular origin in lung LEC heterogeneity, whether lymphatics in other organs have analogous spatial organization, and whether these disparate cells and vessels have functional differences in fluid homeostasis and immune regulation during pulmonary disease pathogenesis.
Crossey et al. (Thu,) studied this question.