Using single-nucleus RNA-sequencing to interrogate transcriptomic profiles of archived human pancreatic islets.

Basile, Giorgio; Kahraman, Sevim; Dirice, Ercument; Pan, Hui; Dreyfuss, Jonathan M; Kulkarni, Rohit N

BACKGROUND Human pancreatic islets are a central focus of research in metabolic studies. Transcriptomics is frequently used to interrogate alterations in cultured human islet cells using single-cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq). We introduce single-nucleus RNA-sequencing (snRNA-seq) as an alternative approach for investigating transplanted human islets. METHODS The Nuclei EZ protocol was used to obtain nuclear preparations from fresh and frozen human islet cells. Such preparations were first used to generate snRNA-seq datasets and compared to scRNA-seq output obtained from cells from the same donor. Finally, we employed snRNA-seq to obtain the transcriptomic profile of archived human islets engrafted in immunodeficient animals. RESULTS We observed virtually complete concordance in identifying cell types and gene proportions as well as a strong association of global and islet cell type gene signatures between scRNA-seq and snRNA-seq applied to fresh and frozen cultured or transplanted human islet samples. CONCLUSIONS We propose snRNA-seq as a reliable strategy to probe transcriptomic profiles of freshly harvested or frozen sources of transplanted human islet cells especially when scRNA-seq is not ideal.