Navigating the Depths and Avoiding the Shallows of Pancreatic Islet Cell Transcriptomes.

ABSTRACT: Islet gene expression has been widely studied to better understand the transcriptional features that define a healthy β-cell. Transcriptomes of FACS-purified α-, β-, and δ-cells using bulk RNA-sequencing have facilitated our understanding of the complex network of cross talk between islet cells and its effects on β-cell function. However, these approaches were by design not intended to resolve heterogeneity between individual cells. Several recent studies used single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-Seq) to report considerable heterogeneity within mouse and human β-cells. In this Perspective, we assess how this newfound ability to assess gene expression at single-cell resolution has enhanced our understanding of β-cell heterogeneity. We conduct a comprehensive assessment of several single human

SUBMITTER: Mawla AM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6609986 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature