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obophenotype / cell-ontology

An ontology of cell types
https://obophenotype.github.io/cell-ontology/
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Review fibrocyte and its subclasses #2097

Open dosumis opened 1 year ago

dosumis commented 1 year ago

fibrocyte http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/CL_0000135 An inactive fibroblast; cytoplasm is sparse, endoplasmic reticulum is scanty with flattened nucleus. Term used by some histologists; when fibroblasts become relatively inactive in fiber formation. However, this cell has the potential for fibrogenesis in quiescent connective tissue of the adult, as well as during development, other histologists prefer to use the term fibroblast in all circumstances. These cells represent ~0.5% of peripheral blood leukocytes. EquivalentTo: (stromal cell and capable of some antigen processing and presentation of peptide antigen via MHC class II and capable of some positive regulation of angiogenesis)

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  1. I think we should ensure that usage is consistent with the more restrictive meaning: inactive fibroblast (although it also seems to be used for circulating cells - is this a third usage? https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1357272519301724)
  2. It is possible that some subclasses are an accident of the tendency of some people to use this term synonymously with 'fibroblast'. This is very clearly the case for tendon cells (tenocytes) which are definitely not quiescent and do not have the structure described in the definition of tenocyte.
  3. Should there be some relationship to fibroblast or GO term for fibroblast differentiation?
  4. Logical axioms make assertions about function that are not reflected in the textual definition. These should be researched and added to the text definition if correct.
github-actions[bot] commented 8 months ago

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dosumis commented 1 month ago

According to Perplexity there are 3 independent usages of the term

  1. Inactive fibroblast (we could used 'quiescent fibroblast' - see Perplexity for refs for precedent)
  2. a type of bloodborne cell derived from monocytes. These cells can migrate to sites of injury and differentiate into fibroblasts, <-- Could call this monocyte derived fibrocyte, or circulating fibrocyte. I assume the functions and markers in the above definition correspond to this usage.
  3. mature supporting cell (e.g. otic fibrocyte) - presumably this corresponds to tendon cell usage. <-- Maybe we should avoid making a grouping term for this, or perhaps 'structural fibrobcyte'. Either way it is important to add a disambiguation comment.

Do not make a fibrocyte grouping term