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Single-Cell Transcriptomic Analysis of Cardiac Progenitor Differentiation

  • Regenerative Medicine (SM Wu, Section Editor)
  • Published:
Current Cardiology Reports Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose of Review

Emerging single-cell RNA sequencing technologies hold great promises to boost our understanding of the heterogeneity and molecular regulation of diverse cell phenotypes during organ development. In this review, we aimed at summarizing recent advances in employing single-cell transcriptomic analysis to depict the landscape of embryonic heart development, in particular, focusing on cardiac progenitor (CP) differentiation.

Recent Findings

Recent studies unbiasedly cataloged and characterized cardiac cell types in the spatial and temporal resolution during early heart development. Pseudo-time analysis revealed a temporal continuum of the differentiation progress from embryonic day (E) 6.5 to E9.5, implicating early cardiac lineage restriction during mouse gastrulation. First and second heart field (FHF and SHF) CPs adopted different differentiation strategies and underwent distinct transcriptional regulation. Collectively, the comprehensive molecular atlases yield a rich resource for identification of the key cardiac regulators and signaling molecules within the key cardiac gene regulatory network (GRN) governing cardiac cell fate determinations.

Summary

This review offers insights into the exquisite process and its regulation of CP differentiation at single-cell resolution. As single-cell technologies continuously grow and evolve, computational integration of multimodal single-cell data with well-designed experimental validation promises to further delineate molecular basis in deploying cardiac progenitors of distinct sources with anatomical information.

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Abbreviations

CP:

Cardiac progenitor

FHF:

First heart field

SHF:

Second heart field

OFT:

Outflow tract

LA:

Left atrium

RA:

Right atrium

LV:

Left ventricle

RV:

Right ventricle

GRN:

Gene regulatory network

CM:

Cardiomyocyte

EC:

Endothelial cell

SMC:

Smooth muscle cell

TF:

Transcription factor

CHD:

Congenital heart disease

KO:

Knock out

WT:

Wild type

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Molecular Medicine, Beijing Key Laboratory of Cardiometabolic Molecular Medicine, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China

    Haiqing Xiong & Aibin He

  2. Peking-Tsinghua Center for Life Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China

    Haiqing Xiong & Aibin He

  3. Academy for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China

    Haiqing Xiong

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Xiong, H., He, A. Single-Cell Transcriptomic Analysis of Cardiac Progenitor Differentiation. Curr Cardiol Rep 22, 38 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11886-020-01285-2

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