Single Cell RNASeq profiling of stromal vascular fraction from Subcutaneous and visceral adipose tissue

The complex relationship between metabolic disease risk and body fat distribution in humans involves cellular characteristics which are specific to each body fat compartment. We applied single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-Seq) to identify these depot-specific differences in the stromal vascular fraction of visceral (VAT) and subcutaneous (SAT) adipose tissue of obese individuals. We characterized multiple immune cells, endothelial cells, fibroblasts, adipose and hematopoietic stem cell progenitors. Subpopulations of adipose-resident immune cells were found to be metabolically active and associated with metabolic disease status including a population of potential dysfunctional CD8+ T cells expressing metallothioneins. Adipocyte progenitors were identified at different stages of adipogenesis where a subset was pronounced in type 2 diabetics. Depot-specific analysis revealed a class of adipocyte progenitors unique to VAT possessing features similar to ‘inducible brown preadipocytes’. Our first generation human scRNA-Seq transcriptome atlas across fat depots provides a new resource to dissect functional genomics of metabolic disease.