Related Experiment Video
Updated: Oct 25, 2025
Single-cell RNA Sequencing and Analysis of Human Pancreatic Islets
Published on: July 18, 2019
Using single-nucleus RNA-sequencing to interrogate transcriptomic profiles of archived human pancreatic islets
Giorgio Basile1, Sevim Kahraman1, Ercument Dirice1,2
1Section of Islet Cell and Regenerative Biology, Joslin Diabetes Center and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 02215, USA.
Background:
Human pancreatic islets are a central focus of research in metabolic studies. Transcriptomics is frequently used to interrogate alterations in cultured human islet cells using single-cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq). We introduce single-nucleus RNA-sequencing (snRNA-seq) as an alternative approach for investigating transplanted human islets.
Methods:
The Nuclei EZ protocol was used to obtain nuclear preparations from fresh and frozen human islet cells. Such preparations were first used to generate snRNA-seq datasets and compared to scRNA-seq output obtained from cells from the same donor. Finally, we employed snRNA-seq to obtain the transcriptomic profile of archived human islets engrafted in immunodeficient animals.
Results:
We observed virtually complete concordance in identifying cell types and gene proportions as well as a strong association of global and islet cell type gene signatures between scRNA-seq and snRNA-seq applied to fresh and frozen cultured or transplanted human islet samples.
Conclusions:
We propose snRNA-seq as a reliable strategy to probe transcriptomic profiles of freshly harvested or frozen sources of transplanted human islet cells especially when scRNA-seq is not ideal.
