The analysis identified multiple ligands including IL6, CCL2, and TIMP1 with high correlation between differential expression of ligands in “sender” fibroblasts and their target genes in the “healer” fibroblasts (sub-clusters 4, 6, and 13) but not in the “control” fibroblasts (sub-clusters 0, 2, and 5) (Fig. 5e) This indicates that fibroblasts from sub-cluster 3 are primarily interacting with the other three sub-clusters of HE-Fibro subset enriched in DFU-Healers rather than the “control” fibroblasts subset enriched in healthy non-DM and diabetic with no-DFU patients. Here, TIMP1 is linked to hereditary elliptocytosis.