Transcriptional Heterogeneity Reveals a Synaptic Gene Program in Developing and Adult Human Oligodendrocyte Precursor Cells.

ABSTRACT: Human oligodendrocyte precursor cells (OPCs) arise early in gestation and expand broadly during cortical development, yet the extent of their heterogeneity remains poorly defined. Here, we isolated >2,300 highly pure OPCs from post-conceptional week (PCW) 17 human cortex using an optimized PDGFRα-based immunopanning and performed single-cell RNA sequencing. Unsupervised clustering revealed four transcriptionally distinct embryonic OPC subsets, including a previously unrecognized population that expressed genes linked to synaptic development, synaptic signaling, and neuromodulation. This subset - designated embryonic synaptic OPCs (eSyn-OPCs) - comprised approximately 28.5% of all embryonic OPCs in the cortex and was characterized by robust expression of synapse-associated secreted factors

SUBMITTER: Grinberg AR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12776387 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature