Single-cell RNA Analysis on ACE2 Expression Provides Insight into SARS-CoV-2 Blood Entry and Heart Injury

Jieyu Guo; Xiangxiang Wei; Qinhan Li; Liliang Li; Zhaohua Yang; Yu Shi; Yue Qin; Xinyue Zhang; Xinhong Wang; Xiuling Zhi; Dan Meng

To explore whether there is a cell-type specific expression difference of the ACE2 gene in healthy populations and patients with pulmonary fibrosis, we analyzed a published dataset containing scRNA-seq data of the normal whole-lung tissues from three healthy donors and fibrotic lung samples from three patients (GSE132771). 11594 cells in normal lung tissues and 13069 cells in fibrotic lung tissues were analyzed. We classified the entire population of normal lung tissue into five major cell types, including type I and type â…¡ alveolar cells (AT1, AT2), ciliated bronchial epithelial cells, immune cells, fibroblasts and vascular cells based on their respective molecular features ( Fig. S1A-S1B ). Similar cell types were also observed in fibrotic lung samples ( Fig. S1C -S1D). We found that the majority of ACE2-expressing cells in normal human lung tissues were AT2 cells (SFTPC-positive) ( Fig. 1A and 1C) , which is consistent with a previous study 7 . Unexpectedly, ACE2 was mainly expressed in arterial vascular cells, All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission. the author/funder, who has granted medRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity.