Endocrine Abstracts

The specialized endocrine cell types of pancreatic islets of Langerhans are essential for maintaining glucose homeostasis. Bulk approaches to characterize islets in normal and diabetic conditions are challenging, as both cell-type specific gene expression changes, changes in the composition of islets, and changes in cell types including de- and trans-differentiation can contribute. Furthermore, technologies to isolate specific cell types from human islets are often lacking, and where available prone to induce gene expression changes in the purification process.

Therefore, we applied single-cell RNA sequencing on cells sorted from human primary islets. We show that using this technology we can validate previously described and discover novel marker genes at for individual cell types. Furthermore, we identify key differences between human and rodent islets, and we observe islet-cell specific expression of diabetes risk genes identified from genome-wide association studies.

In summary, the establishment of single cell transcriptomics opens up numerous possibilities to characterize islets in normal and diabetic conditions, but also to clarify islet-cell type specific effects of therapeutic intervention.