Urine stem cells as a bona fide model to study cartilage associated disease

Non-invasive cellular models for genetic growth disorders affecting cartilage and bone remain rare, hampering mechanistic studies and the development of personalized therapies. Here, we present urine-derived stem cells (USCs), as a robust in vitro system for human chondrogenesis. Single-cell RNA sequencing of undifferentiated USCs revealed distinct clusters, of which a subset had high stem cell character. After differentiation, USCs underwent osteogenic and chondrogenic lineage with positive marker expression, confirmed by bulk-RNA-Seq. Single cell transcriptomic comparisons with healthy cartilage revealed a healthy cartilage mimicking, chondrocyte-like subcluster. Pseudotime analysis revealed multiple chondrogenic trajectories. single cell RNA-seq analysis of chondrogenically induced (14 days) and differentiated urinary stem cells