单细胞转录组测序技术在骨关节炎中的研究进展

Research progress of single cell RNA sequencing technology in osteoarthritis

骨关节炎是一种常见的以软骨细胞退变、软骨下骨重构以及滑膜炎症为主要特征的慢性退行性骨关节疾病,目前病因及分子发病机制尚不明确。单细胞转录组测序可以对全转录组在单细胞水平进行扩增与测序,可以解决普通细胞测序技术不能精确到细胞类型的问题,用于细胞异质性发现及微量样品的转录组分析,可以在分子水平上研究骨关节炎的发病机制和病理分期,发现新的治疗靶点,为骨关节炎的早期诊断和治疗提供新的理论依据。本文就单细胞转录组测序技术及在骨关节炎领域的研究进展进行概述。

Osteoarthritis is a common chronic degenerative bone and joint disease characterized by chondrocyte degeneration, subchondral bone remodelling and synovial inflammation. However, the etiology and molecular pathogenesis remain unclear at present. Single cell RNA sequencing, a new technique for amplification and sequencing of full RNA at the single cell level, reduces the bias that bulk RNA-seq is not accurate to identify cell type. Therefore, this new technique may be used for the discovery of cellular heterogeneity, pathogenic gene, new cell populations and transcriptome analysis of trace samples. By using this technique, researches regarding the pathogenesis of osteoarthritis have been expand to the molecular level to find new therapeutic targets, and provide important theoretical basis and molecular targets for early diagnosis and treatment of osteoarthritis. This article summarizes the core steps of single cell transcriptome sequencing and its research progress in the field of osteoarthritis.