Complex intercellular interactions as well as biomolecular and biomechanical cues from the extracellular matrix (ECM) profoundly affect cellular functions. Traditional transcriptomic and proteomic approaches have provided insight into disease progression by identifying discrete cellular subpopulations or microenvironmental signatures characteristic of normal or pathological tissues, however these techniques do not examine how a given cellular state relates to its interactions with neighboring cells or its surrounding ECM with multiparametric characterization (i.e. ECM alignment, mechanical forces, crosslinking, etc.). Emerging spatial-omic techniques can provide high-resolution mapping of expression profiles similar to scRNA-seq and mass spectroscopy directly within tissues. The ability to preserve the spatial context of cells within samples, their cellular geometry, as well as their surrounding ECM gives spatial-omics the opportunity to interrogate previously unexplored signaling modalities, which has the potential to revolutionize ECM research and our understanding of fibrotic diseases. In this review, we present current spatial transcriptomic and proteomic techniques and discuss how they may be applied to investigate cell-ECM interactions.

复杂的细胞间相互作用以及来自细胞外基质 (ECM) 的生物分子和生物力学线索深刻影响细胞功能。传统的转录组学和蛋白质组学方法通过识别正常或病理组织的离散细胞亚群或微环境特征特征提供了对疾病进展的洞察力，但是这些技术并未检查给定的细胞状态如何与其与邻近细胞或其周围 ECM 的相互作用与多参数相关表征（即 ECM 对齐、机械力、交联等）。新兴的空间组学技术可以直接在组织内提供类似于 scRNA-seq 和质谱的表达谱的高分辨率映射。保存样本中细胞空间背景的能力，它们的细胞几何形状以及周围的 ECM 为空间组学提供了研究以前未开发的信号模式的机会，这有可能彻底改变 ECM 研究和我们对纤维化疾病的理解。在这篇综述中，我们介绍了当前的空间转录组学和蛋白质组学技术，并讨论了如何将它们应用于研究细胞-ECM 相互作用。