248 words) Rationale: The respiratory tract constitutes an elaborated line of defense based on a unique cellular ecosystem. Single-cell profiling methods enable the investigation of cell population distributions and transcriptional changes along the airways.
Methods:We have explored cellular heterogeneity of the human airway epithelium in 10 healthy living volunteers by single-cell RNA profiling. 77,969 cells were collected by bronchoscopy at 35 distinct locations, from the nose to the 12 th division of the airway tree.
Results:The resulting atlas is composed of a high percentage of epithelial cells (89.1%), but also immune (6.2%) and stromal (4.7%) cells with peculiar cellular proportions in different sites of the airways. It reveals differential gene expression between identical cell types (suprabasal, secretory, and multiciliated cells) from the nose (MUC4, PI3, SIX3) and tracheobronchial (SCGB1A1, TFF3) airways. By contrast, cell-type specific gene expression was stable across all tracheobronchial samples. Our atlas improves the description of ionocytes, pulmonary neuroendocrine (PNEC) and brush cells, which are likely derived from a common population of precursor cells. We also report a population of KRT13 positive cells with a high percentage of dividing cells which are reminiscent of "hillock" cells previously described in mouse.
Conclusions:Robust characterization of this unprecedented large single-cell cohort establishes an important resource for future investigations. The precise description of the continuum existing from nasal epithelium to successive divisions of lung airways and the stable gene expression profile of these regions better defines conditions under which relevant tracheobronchial proxies of human respiratory diseases can be developed.
Results
Building a molecular cell atlas of the airways in healthy volunteers
Data collectionCells were analyzed by droplet-based single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq), after isolation from 4 distinct locations using 2 sampling methods: (i) nasal biopsies (3 samples) and (ii) nasal brushings (4 samples), (iii) tracheal biopsies (carina, 1 st division, 9 samples), (iv) intermediate bronchial biopsies (5-6 th divisions, 10 samples), (v) distal brushings (9-12 th divisions, 9 samples) in 10 healthy volunteers ( Figure 1A, 1B, Figure E1A, Table E1). Optimized handling and dissociation protocols allowed the profiling of 77,969 single cells which were collected at 35 distinct positions of the airways, resulting in the detection of an average of 1,892 expressed genes per cell with 7,070 UMI per cell ( Figure E2A).Following batch correction and graph-based clustering, cell types were assigned to each cluster using well-established sets of marker genes ( Figure 1C, Figure E3). We identified 14 epithelial cell types, including 12 for the surface epithelium and 2 for submucosal glands, which collectively represented 89.1% of total cells ( Figure 1C-1E, Table E2; See also our interactive web tool https://www.genomique.eu/cellbrowser/HCA/?ds=HCA_airway_epithelium).Strom...