Therefore, the aim of the present work was to investigate whether the alterations of dermal TCs/CD34+ stromal cells found in human SSc [31] could be reproduced in a widely used model in which daily subcutaneous injections of the antitumor antibiotic bleomycin result into the development of localized dermal fibrosis that mimics several key features of SSc skin pathology [37,38]. Here, CD34 is linked to systemic sclerosis.