1. Academic Validation
  2. Cross-species single-cell transcriptomic analysis reveals divergence of cell composition and functions in mammalian ileum epithelium

Cross-species single-cell transcriptomic analysis reveals divergence of cell composition and functions in mammalian ileum epithelium

  • Cell Regen. 2022 May 5;11(1):19. doi: 10.1186/s13619-022-00118-7.
Haonan Li  # 1 Xiaodan Wang  # 1 Yalong Wang 1 2 Mengxian Zhang 1 Fan Hong 3 Hong Wang 4 Along Cui 5 Jianguo Zhao 5 Weizhi Ji 4 Ye-Guang Chen 6 7
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 The State Key Laboratory of Membrane Biology, Tsinghua-Peking Center for Life Sciences, School of Life Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China.
  • 2 Guangzhou Institutes of Biomedicine and Health, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou Science Park, Guangzhou, 510530, China.
  • 3 Guangzhou Laboratory, Guangzhou, 510005, China.
  • 4 State Key Laboratory of Primate Biomedical Research, Institute of Primate Translational Medicine, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, 650500, Yunnan, China.
  • 5 State Key Laboratory of Stem cell and Reproductive Biology, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China.
  • 6 The State Key Laboratory of Membrane Biology, Tsinghua-Peking Center for Life Sciences, School of Life Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China. ygchen@tsinghua.edu.cn.
  • 7 Guangzhou Laboratory, Guangzhou, 510005, China. ygchen@tsinghua.edu.cn.
  • # Contributed equally.
Abstract

Animal models are widely used for biomedical studies and drug evaluation. The small intestine plays key roles in nutrient absorption, hormone secretion, microbiota defense and drug absorption and metabolism. Although the intestinal structure of mammals is conserved, the differences on epithelial cell composition, functional assignments and drug absorption among mammals are largely unknown. Here, cross-species analysis of single-cell transcriptomic atlas of the ileum epithelium from mouse, rat, pig, macaque and human reveals the conserved and differential cell types and functions among species, identifies a new CA7+ cell type in pig, macaque and human ileum, uncovers the distinct expression pattern in enterocytes, enteroendocrine cells and Paneth cells, and defines the conserved and species-specific intestinal stem cell signature genes. The examination of drug absorption across species suggests that drug metabolism in mouse ileum is closer to human while drug transport in macaque ileum is more similar to human. Together, our data provide the comprehensive information about cell composition and functional assignments in five species, and offer the valuable guidance for animal model selection and drug testing.

Keywords

CA7 cells; Ileum; Monkey; Pig; Rat; Transcriptome; scRNA-seq.

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