Single-cell RNA-seq analysis of pancreatic progenitor cells and mesenchyme from mouse embryos

The pancreas is an endodermal organ with exocrine and endocrine cell compartments. The embryonic development of the pancreas relies on the the coordinated action of pancreatic progenitors and its surrounding microenvironments. The most abundant cell type of the pancreatic microenviroment are mesenchymal cells. These cells are known to contribute to the pancreas organ growth, morphogenesis and differentiation. In this study, we used single-cell RNA sequencing to molecularly characterize mesenchymal and pancreatic progenitor populations in the dorsal pancreas of the mouse embryos. Overall design: Single cells were isolated by FACS from the dorsal pancreatic tissue of Tg(Prox1-EGFP), Tg(Nkx2.5-Cre;mTmG) and Tg(Nkx3.2-Cre;mTmG) transgenic mouse embryos at embryonic day (E) 12.5 and processed for single-cell RNA sequencing using SmartSeq2 method.