Single-Cell RNA Sequencing Reveals Distinct Cardiac-Derived Stromal Cell Subpopulations

Several human studies show positive signals, while research methods and sample sizes continue to develop.

• Level A · Stronger Clinical Evidence
• Level B · Emerging clinical evidence with positive signals
• Level C · Early human research exploring benefits
• Level D · Scientific groundwork from lab and animal studies
• Emerging · Emerging topic under active research

Abstract (original English)

Human cardiac-derived c-kit+ stromal cells (CSCs) have demonstrated efficacy in preclinical trials for the treatment of heart failure and myocardial dysfunction. Unfortunately, large variability in patient outcomes and cell populations remains a problem. Previous research has demonstrated that the reparative capacity of CSCs may be linked to the age of the cells: CSCs derived from neonate patients increase cardiac function and reduce fibrosis. However, age-dependent differences between CSC populations have primarily been explored with bulk sequencing methods. In this work, we hypothesized that differences in CSC populations and subsequent cell therapy outcomes may arise from differing cell subtypes within donor CSC samples. We performed single-cell RNA sequencing on four neonatal CSC (nCSC) and five child CSC (cCSC) samples. Subcluster analysis revealed cCSC-enriched clusters upregulated in several fibrosis- and immune response-related genes. Module-based analysis identified upregulation of chemotaxis and ribosomal activity-related genes in nCSCs and upregulation of immune response and fiber synthesis genes in cCSCs. Further, we identified versican and integrin alpha 2 as potential markers for a fibrotic cell subtype. By investigating differences in patient-derived CSC populations at the single-cell level, this research aims to identify and characterize CSC subtypes to better o

Evidence level

Several human studies show positive signals, while research methods and sample sizes continue to develop.

Browse all related research

Filter the research library by this study's title keywords, author, or publication year.