Heart of Cells

The heart, which is the first organ to develop, is highly dependent on its form to function. However, how diverse cardiac cell types spatially coordinate to create complex morphological structures critical for heart function remains to be elucidated. Here, we show that integration of single cell RNA-sequencing with high-resolution multiplexed error-robust fluorescent in situ hybridization (MERFISH) not only resolves the identity of cardiac cell types developing the human heart but also provides a spatial mapping of individual cells that enables illumination of their organization into cellular communities forming distinct cardiac structures. We discovered that many of these cardiac cell types further specified into subpopulations exclusive to specific communities, supporting their... (for more see dbGaP study page.)