Spatiotemporal multi-omics decoding of the developing human spinal cord II

The human spinal cord contains diverse cell types, governed by a series of spatiotemporal events for tissue assembly and functions. However, the regulation of cell fate specification in the human developing spinal cord remains largely unknown. By performing single-cell and spatial multi-omics methods, we integrated the datasets and created a comprehensive human developmental atlas of the first trimester spinal cord. Unexpectedly, we discovered unique events in human spinal cord development, including early loss of active neural stem cells, simultaneous occurrence of neurogenesis and gliogenesis, and distinct spatiotemporal genetic regulations of fate choices. We also identified distinct regulations of cancer stem cells in ependymomas from our atlas. Thus, we demonstrate spatiotemporal genetic regulation of human spinal cord development and its potential to understand novel disease mechanisms. The human embryos and fetuses were transported immediately from the clinics to the dissection lab in Hibernation medium (Gibco A13706-01). After staging, spinal cords were removed from the intact tissue in ice cold saline (Fresenius Kabi, B306443/01). W5-7 spinal cords were kept as one piece, and W8-12 spinal cords were dissected into cervical, thoracic, and lumbar regions. Spinal cords were then kept in ice cold hibrination medium or snap frozen in OCT for scRNA-seq immediately, or cryosectioning in the future respectively. -------------------------- Authors state "However, raw reads from our cohort are considered sensitive and protected by GDPR regulations, and will therefore be uploaded to Swedish federated EGA."