A single-cell transcriptome atlas of mouse glomerulus

Three different cell types constitute the glomerular filter: mesangial cells, endothelial cells, and podocytes. As yet, it remains unknown to what extent cellular heterogeneity exists within healthy glomerular cell populations. Here, we used nanodroplet-based, highly parallel transcriptional profiling to characterize the cellular content of purified wildtype mouse glomeruli. Unsupervised clustering of 13,000 single-cell transcriptomes identified the three known glomerular cell types. We provide a comprehensive online atlas of gene expression in glomerular cells, which can be queried and visualized using an interactive and freely available database. Novel marker genes for all glomerular cell types were identified and supported by immunohistochemistry stainings obtained from the Human Protein Atlas. Subclustering of glomerular endothelial cells revealed a subset of activated endothelium, expressing marker genes related to endothelial proliferation. Additionally, the podocyte population could be divided in three different subclusters. In conclusion, our study comprehensively characterizes gene expression in individual glomerular cells and sets the stage for the dissection of glomerular function at the single-cell level in health and disease. Single cell transcriptomics of Mouse Kidney Glomeruli using Drop-seq