Multimodal spatial transcriptomics reveal the developing human liver niche at single-cell resolution

ABSTRACT: A comprehensive understanding of the fetal liver niche during development offers a lens into a unique natural multifunctional multicellular environment. Here we use a spatial transcriptomic and histologic analysis approach to identify and histologically confirm RNA-based markers in human fetal liver tissue within a key developmental window in which the liver is a major site of hematopoiesis, just prior to the increased growth phase of the final trimester. Within this window, the fetal liver niche encompasses the unique coexistence of cells of both endodermal and mesenchymal origin with the unique environment fostering hematopoietic cell development as well as hepatocyte function. Single-cell resolution spatial imaging reveals epithelial, hematopoietic, endothelial, and stromal cell populations in shared cellular microenvironments. Here, our single-cell spatial transcriptomic and imaging approach enables, captures, and confirms the complex phenomena of ductal plate expression and CXCL12 homing to the hematopoietic stem cell niche (HSC) in the liver. An RNA-based understanding of the functional diversity and in situ spatial organization of the fetal liver niche is critical for adequate validation and authentication in recapitulating and re-engineering these regenerative environments in vitro.

ORGANISM(S): Homo sapiens

PROVIDER: GSE306606 | GEO | 2026/02/27

REPOSITORIES: GEO