Stromal Fibroblasts Drive Single Cell Heterogeneity in Pancreatic Cancer

To understand the interplay between cancer and stroma, we performed single cell RNA-sequencing of PDAC cells admixed with stromal fibroblasts and defined different single cell populations with varying levels of proliferative and metastatic transcriptional states. PDAC cell behavior in vitro and in vivo on these phenotypic axes could be tuned with the proportion of stromal fibroblasts. These cell types were identified in human pancreatic tumors, and specific subpopulations were associated with worsened outcomes. 92 single PDAC cells and 92 single CAF cells were micromanipulated and prepared for sequencing (23 of each cell type from four culture ratios). The 24th sample from each cell type-culture condition combination is a population control obtained by micromanipulating 100 cells of the given type from the given culture condition and preparing it as if it were a single cell, giving a total of 96 PDAC samples and 96 CAF samples. During the course of library construction, 3 samples were lost, all PDAC cells from the 30:70 condition (two single cells and the population control), leaving 93 total PDAC samples and 96 total CAF samples.