Many anatomical regions in the kidney, including proximal tubules, differ between males and females. While such differences in renal structures and functions under various physiological and pharmacological conditions have been identified, information relating to molecular mechanisms behind this gender disparity remain unknown. To understand gene expression differences in proximal tubules from human male and female kidneys, we report on kidney cellular landscape using single-cell RNA sequencing. Differential gene expression profiles were observed in proximal tubules, between the sexes. Interestingly, the SLC22 family of anion transporters, including SLC22A6 and SLC22A8, had different expression profiles between male and female proximal tubule clusters but not sex-dependent abundance at the protein level. Moreover, in different species, we revealed a shared and species-specific differential gene expression between human and mouse kidney proximal tubules. Taken together, at single-cell resolution, this transcriptomic map represents a baseline description of gender biased genes in human kidney proximal tubules, which provide important insights for further studies of physiological differences in kidney.

中文翻译：

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单细胞分析揭示了人类肾脏近端小管中的性别多样性。

男性和女性之间，肾脏的许多解剖区域（包括近端小管）有所不同。尽管已经确定了在各种生理和药理条件下肾脏结构和功能的这种差异，但有关这种性别差异背后的分子机制的信息仍然未知。为了了解人类男性和女性肾脏近端小管中的基因表达差异，我们报告了使用单细胞RNA测序的肾脏细胞景观。在两性之间的近端小管中观察到差异基因表达谱。有趣的是，包括SLC22A6和SLC22A8在内的SLC22阴离子转运蛋白家族在男性和女性近端小管簇之间具有不同的表达谱，但在蛋白质水平上没有性别依赖性的丰度。而且，在不同的物种中 我们揭示了人类和小鼠肾脏近端小管之间共有的且物种特异性的差异基因表达。总体而言，在单细胞分辨率下，该转录组图谱代表了人类肾脏近端小管中性别偏向基因的基线描述，为进一步研究肾脏的生理差异提供了重要的见识。