Department of Pediatrics, University of California San Diego, California and Rady Children's Hospital, San Diego, CA.
Departments of Medicine and Pathology & Immunology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO.
Hepatology. 2021 Jan;73(1):437-448. doi: 10.1002/hep.31485.
Single cell transcriptomics has emerged as a powerful lens through which to study the molecular diversity of complex tissues such as the liver, during health and disease, both in animal models and in humans. The earliest gene expression methods measured bulk tissue RNA, but the results were often confusing because they derived from the combined transcriptomes of many different cell types in unknown proportions. To better delineate cell-type-specific expression, investigators developed cell isolation, purification, and sorting protocols, yet still, the RNA derived from ensembles of cells obscured recognition of cellular heterogeneity. Profiling transcriptomes at the single-cell level has opened the door to analyses that were not possible in the past. In this review, we discuss the evolution of single cell transcriptomics and how it has been applied for the study of liver physiology and pathobiology to date.
单细胞转录组学已经成为一种强大的研究手段，可以在健康和疾病状态下，从动物模型和人类中，研究肝脏等复杂组织的分子多样性。最早的基因表达方法测量的是组织总 RNA，但结果往往令人困惑，因为它们源自许多不同细胞类型的混合转录组，其比例未知。为了更好地区分细胞类型特异性表达，研究人员开发了细胞分离、纯化和分选方案，但仍然无法避免来自细胞群体的 RNA 掩盖了细胞异质性的识别。在单细胞水平上进行转录组分析为过去无法进行的分析打开了大门。在这篇综述中，我们讨论了单细胞转录组学的发展，以及它迄今为止在肝脏生理学和病理生物学研究中的应用。
