Jenkins Thomas L, Yik Jasper H N, Haudenschild Dominik R
Department of Translational Orthopedic Research, Houston Methodist Research Institute, Houston, TX, USA.
Orthopedics & Sports Medicine, Houston Methodist Hospital, Houston, TX, USA.
Connect Tissue Res. 2025 Jul;66(4):227-238. doi: 10.1080/03008207.2025.2501703. Epub 2025 May 10.
This review highlights the transformative impact of spatial transcriptomics on orthopedic research, focusing on its application in deciphering intricate gene expression patterns within musculoskeletal tissues.
The paper reviews literature for spatial transcriptomic methods, specifically 10X Visium, 10X Xenium, seqFISH+, MERFISH, NanoString GeoMx DSP, used on musculoskeletal tissues (cartilage, joints, bone, tendon, ligament, and synovium).
Searches identified 29 published manuscripts reporting spatial transcriptomic data in cartilage, bone, tendon, synovium, and intervertebral disc. Most publications of spatial transcriptomic data are from tendon and synovium. 10X Visium has been used in 22 of the 29 papers identified. Spatial transcriptomics has been used to identify novel cell populations and cell signaling pathways that regulate development and disease.
Imaging-based spatial transcriptomic methods may be better for hypothesis testing as they generally have subcellular resolution but sequence fewer genes. Sequencing methods may be better for untargeted, shotgun approaches that can generate useful hypotheses from the spatial data from unimpaired tissue sections. Spatial transcriptomic methods could become useful for clinical diagnostics and precision medicine approaches.
本综述强调了空间转录组学对骨科研究的变革性影响，重点关注其在解读肌肉骨骼组织内复杂基因表达模式方面的应用。
本文回顾了用于肌肉骨骼组织（软骨、关节、骨骼、肌腱、韧带和滑膜）的空间转录组学方法的文献，特别是10X Visium、10X Xenium、seqFISH+、MERFISH、NanoString GeoMx DSP。
检索发现29篇已发表的手稿报告了软骨、骨骼、肌腱、滑膜和椎间盘中的空间转录组学数据。大多数空间转录组学数据的出版物来自肌腱和滑膜。在所识别的29篇论文中，有22篇使用了10X Visium。空间转录组学已被用于识别调节发育和疾病的新型细胞群体和细胞信号通路。
基于成像的空间转录组学方法可能更适合假设检验，因为它们通常具有亚细胞分辨率，但测序的基因较少。测序方法可能更适合非靶向的鸟枪法，这种方法可以从未受损组织切片的空间数据中产生有用的假设。空间转录组学方法可能对临床诊断和精准医学方法有用。
