Single Cell RNA-Sequencing Identifies the Effect of Normothermic ex vivo Liver Perfusion on Liver-Resident T cells

This is the first study to create an atlas of liver TRM T cells in a naïve liver and demonstrate the effects of NEVLP on liver TRM T cells at the single cell gene expression level. Furthermore, we show the potentially beneficial effects of adding anti-inflammatory cytokines to the NEVLP circuit on liver-resident TRM T cells. Rat livers were perfused for 4 hours at 37°C with or without the addition of IL-10 and TGF-β. Naïve and cold storage (4 hours at 4°C) livers served as controls. Following preservation, liver function, damage, and immune activation were assessed. TRM gene expression profiles were assessed through single cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq). Downstream analyses include T cell subset extraction, followed by differential expression analysis between various treatment groups. Gene set enrichment was then conducted on the identified differentially expressed genes to highlight the differentially regulated pathways and functional terms associated with treatment groups.