Application progress of single-cell sequencing technology in mesenchymal stem cells research

Hao Li; Yusong Wang; Gehua Zhu; Qimin Ma; Shengyu Huang; Guanghua Guo; Feng Zhu

doi:10.3389/fcell.2023.1336482

Application progress of single-cell sequencing technology in mesenchymal stem cells research

Front Cell Dev Biol. 2024 Jan 9:11:1336482. doi: 10.3389/fcell.2023.1336482. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Hao Li^#¹, Yusong Wang^#², Gehua Zhu^#¹, Qimin Ma³, Shengyu Huang¹, Guanghua Guo¹, Feng Zhu^{2

3}

Affiliations

¹ Medical Center of Burn Plastic and Wound Repair, The First Affiliated Hospital, Jiangxi Medical College, Nanchang University, Nanchang, China.
² Department of Burns, The First Affiliated Hospital, Naval Medical University, Shanghai, China.
³ Department of Critical Care Medicine, Shanghai East Hospital, Tongji University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Single-Cell Sequencing (SCS) technology plays an important role in the field of Mesenchymal Stem Cells (MSCs) research. This paper comprehensively describes the application of SCS technology in the field of MSCs research, including (1) SCS enables more precise MSCs characterization and biomarker definition. (2) SCS reveals the prevalent gene expression heterogeneity among different subclusters within MSCs, which contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of MSCs function and diversity in developmental, regenerative, and pathological contexts. (3) SCS provides insights into the dynamic transcriptional changes experienced by MSCs during differentiation and the complex web of important signaling pathways and regulatory factors controlling key processes within MSCs, including proliferation, differentiation and regulation, and interactions mechanisms. (4) The analytical methods underpinning SCS data are rapidly evolving and converging with the field of histological research to systematically deconstruct the functions and mechanisms of MSCs. This review provides new perspectives for unraveling the biological properties, heterogeneity, differentiation potential, biological functions, and clinical potential of MSCs at the single-cell level.

Keywords: differentiation trajectories; immunomodulation; mesenchymal stem cells; single-cell sequencing; surface markers.

Publication types

Review

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This research was funded by The Top-level Clinical Discipline Project of Shanghai Pudong (PWYgf2021-03) and National Key R&D Program “Stem Cell and Transformation Research” Key Special Project (2019YFA0110602).