Single-Cell Analyses of Human Pancreas: Characteristics of two populations of acinar cells in chronic pancreatitis

Am J Physiol Gastrointest Liver Physiol. 2021 Sep 15. doi: 10.1152/ajpgi.00482.2020. Online ahead of print.ABSTRACTChronic pancreatitis (CP) is a complex inflammatory disorder with numerous associated genetic and environmental risk factors. The most distressing characteristic of CP is recalcitrant pain, often requiring surgical resection including total pancreatectomy with islet autotransplantation (TPIAT). We studied 5 consented subjects undergoing pancreatic resection and processed isolated cells for single cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-Seq). Using high-dimensional transcriptomic cluster analysis we identified eleven unique cell clusters in the pancreas tissue. These cell clusters include a cluster of undifferentiated/dedifferentiated cells and two unique clusters of acinar cells, one of which appears to be in a transitional stage. To determine the cellular response to protease inhibitor and stimulation, we treated aliquots of cells from one subject with a protease inhibitor cocktail with and without bethanechol (a muscarinic receptor agonist) at 100 and 400 µM and compared gene expression profiles. The protease inhibitors appeared to reduce cell stress. Pancreatic digestive enzymes and islet hormones were upregulated in both doses of bethanechol-treated cells compared to naïve cells. High dose bethanechol appeared to be toxic and consistent with hyperstimulation. These studies demonstrate the feasibility of investigating human acinar cell physiology at the single cell level...
Source: Am J Physiol Gastroi... - Category: Gastroenterology Authors: Source Type: research