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Heterogeneity and Molecular Markers for CNS Glial Cells Revealed by Single-Cell Transcriptomics

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Abstract

Glial cells, including astrocytes, oligodendrocytes, and microglia, are the major components in the central nervous system (CNS). Studies have revealed the heterogeneity of each glial cell type and that they each may play distinct roles in physiological processes and/or neurological diseases. Single-cell sequencing (scRNA-seq) technology developed in recent years has extended our understanding of glial cell heterogeneity from the perspective of transcriptome profiling. This review summarizes the marker genes of major glial cells in the CNS and reveals their heterogeneity in different species, CNS regions, developmental stages, and pathological states (Alzheimer’s disease and spinal cord injury), expanding our knowledge of glial cell heterogeneity on both molecular and functional levels.

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Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge the National Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 81701127 to XL, Grant No. 32000841 to SJ), the Municipal Health Commission of Nantong (Grant No. MA2020019 to QJ), and the Science and Technology Bureau of Nantong (Grant No. JC2020101 to QJ).

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SJ, XL, and WL provided ideas and wrote the paper. SJ, SY, CZ, QJ, and ZS were responsible for the retrieval of papers. All authors read the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Liucheng Wu or Lingyan Xing.

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The authors have read this review and state that there was no conflict of interest in the publication of it.

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Sun, J., Song, Y., Chen, Z. et al. Heterogeneity and Molecular Markers for CNS Glial Cells Revealed by Single-Cell Transcriptomics. Cell Mol Neurobiol 42, 2629–2642 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10571-021-01159-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10571-021-01159-3

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