Confocal microscopy analysis on cryopreserved sections confirmed that the intracellular peptidase PI16 was expressed by only a few cells in pediatric patients’ tonsils (Extended Data Fig. 5c,d), whereas PDPN+ FRCs in adult patients with OSA (Fig. 5a and Extended Data Fig. 5a) and adult patients with tonsillitis (Fig. 5b and Extended Data Fig. 5b) showed a higher abundance of PI16-expressing cells. Here, PDPN is linked to medical procedure.