The single cell RNA seq of pulmonary alveolar type II (AT2) cells

The pulmonary alveolar epithelium mainly composed of two types of epithelial cells: alveolar type I (AT1) and type II (AT2) cells. AT2 cells are the alveolar stem cells, and can differentiate into AT1 cells post-pneumonectomy (PNX). Here, we found that, compared with control mice (Sftpc-CreER; Cdc42flox/+; Rosa26-mTmG) at post-PNX day 21, Cdc42 AT2 null mice (Sftpc-CreER; Cdc42flox/-; Rosa26-mTmG) at post-PNX day 21 undergone fibrotic change. By using 10X genomics “Chromium Single Cell” technology, we performed single-cell RNA-seq analyses of AT2 cells of sham treated control mice (C0), AT2 cells of control mice at post PNX day 21 (C21) , AT2 cells of sham treated Cdc42 AT2 null mice (N0), and AT2 cells of Cdc42 AT2 null mice at post PNX day 21 (N21). The study identified a specific gene signature in AT2 cells of Cdc42 AT2 null mice at post PNX day 21 which is related to the fibrosis phenotype of Cdc42 AT2 null mice. We performed 10X genomics single-cell RNA-seq of AT2 cells of sham treated control mice (C0), AT2 cells of control mice at post PNX day 21 (C21) , AT2 cells of sham treated Cdc42 AT2 null mice ( N0) and AT2 cells of Cdc42 AT2 null mice at post PNX day 21 (N21).