Dissecting the human liver cellular landscape by single cell RNA-seq reveals novel intrahepatic monocyte/ macrophage populations

The liver is the largest solid organ in the body and is critical for metabolic and immune functions. However, surprisingly little is known about the cells that make up the human liver and its immune microenvironment. To address this, we mapped the cellular landscape in the human liver using single cell RNA sequencing. We carefully fractionated fragile, fresh hepatic tissue from human livers to obtain viable parenchymal and non-parenchymal cells. Our single cell transcriptomics map reveals 20 discrete cell populations, including a novel description of distinct monocyte/ macrophage populations in the human liver. We present a comprehensive view of the human liver at single cell resolution that outlines new characteristics of resident cells in the liver, and in particular provides a new map of the human hepatic immune microenvironment. Primary liver samples from 5 patients were used for single cell RNA sequencing by 10X Genomics