Comparison of cell type distribution between single-cell and single-nucleus RNA sequencing: enrichment of adherent cell types in single-nucleus RNA sequencing

Experimental & Molecular Medicine, Published online: 02 December 2022; doi:10.1038/s12276-022-00892-zMethods that analyze single-cell RNA sequences in fresh clinical samples are skewed toward examining a different subset of cell types than methods analyzing single-nucleus sequences in frozen tissues. A team led by Chang Eun Yoo and Woong-Yang Park from the Samsung Medical Center in Seoul, South Korea, applied two different RNA-sequencing techniques in parallel on a common set of colon and liver tissues collected from cancer patients. They showed that single-cell profiling, which works best with fresh samples that can be readily dissociated into component cells, returned results on more immune cells, whereas single-nucleus methods, best for archived -frozen tissues, were enriched for more cells of epithelial origin. The different cell distributions revealed by this matched tissue analysis should help inform data interpretation and assay selection for future RNA-sequencing studies.
Source: Experimental and Molecular Medicine - Category: Molecular Biology Authors: Source Type: research