视网膜单细胞转录组测序研究进展

Advances in single-cell RNA sequencing in the retina

视网膜由多类细胞组成,每类细胞都有着独特的生物学功能。即使是同类细胞,也会因遗传异质性导致细胞功能出现差异。以往传统的研究手段无法分辨这些差异,有些细胞由于缺乏特异性分子标记或数量稀缺也难以定义,阻碍了人们对这些细胞的认识及研究。随着生物技术的发展,单细胞转录组测序技术可以获得单个细胞转录组表达谱、识别细胞间异质性、鉴别细胞亚类及稀有细胞群,揭示每个细胞的转录组表达谱特征和功能差异,剖析细胞的起源、功能及变异特征。可获得与疾病相关的特征性细胞亚类及特异性差异表达基因,加深我们对疾病起因、发展的理解,也为临床诊断及靶向治疗提供帮助。

Retina is composed of a heterogeneous population of cell types,each with a unique biological function.Even if the same type of cells,due to genetic heterogeneity will lead to cell function differences.In the past,traditional molecular biological methods cannot resolve variations in their functional roles that arise from these differences,and some cells are difficult to define due to the lack of specific molecular markers or the scarcity of numbers,which hindered the understanding and research of these cells.With the development of biotechnology,single-cell RNA sequencing can analyze and resolve differences in single-cell transcriptome expression profiles,characterize intracellular population heterogeneity,identify new and rare cell subtypes,and more definitely define the characteristics of each cell type.It clarifies the origin,function,and variations in cell phenotypes.Other attributes include pinpointing both disease-related characteristics of cell subtypes and specific differential gene expression patterns,to deepen our understanding of the causes and progression of diseases,as well as to aid clinical diagnosis and targeted therapy.