Fig. 10.

Schematic model of predicted glucocorticoid receptor (GR) signaling. GR signaling primarily regulates differentiation of mesenchymal progenitor cells (PMPs) into matrix fibroblasts (MFBs), the latter playing crucial roles in synthesis of extracellular matrix and collagen. We propose that glucocorticoid (GC)/GR signaling indirectly regulates lung epithelial cells largely via cell-matrix-cell interactions. The network was generated in Cytoscape v3.7.1. AT₁, alveolar type 1 cells; AT₂, alveolar type 2 cells; Dex, dexamethasone.