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Single-cell RNA sequencing profiling of the effects of aging on alveolar stem cells

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Abstract

The aging of alveolar stem cells has been linked to many chronic lung diseases, including pulmonary fibrosis. However, the effects of aging on alveolar stem cells during homeostasis and post-injury alveolar repair have not been well characterized. Here we conducted a single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) analysis of alveolar stem cells of 3-month-old and 12-month-old mice to characterize the aging effect on alveolar stem cells. Our results have shown that the transcriptomes of alveolar stem cells of 3-month-old and 12-month-old mice are not significantly different under the steady condition. However, after a bleomycin-induced lung injury, the alveolar stem cells of 12-month-old mice show enhanced inflammatory responses and decreased lipid metabolism. Our study suggests a close relationship among aging, lipid metabolism, inflammatory responses and chronic lung diseases.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81430001 and 81870056) and Beijing Major Science and Technology Projects (Z171100000417003 to N.T.).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine; Center of Respiratory Medicine, China-Japan Friendship Hospital; National Clinical Research Center for Respiratory Diseases, Institute of Respiratory Medicine Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing, 100029, China

    Tingting Lv, Huaping Dai & Chen Wang

  2. Graduate School of Peking Union Medical College, Chinese Academy of Medical Science and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, 100005, China

    Tingting Lv & Chen Wang

  3. National Institute of Biological Sciences, Beijing, 102206, China

    Kewu Jiang, Jiawen Wang & Nan Tang

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  1. Tingting Lv
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  2. Kewu Jiang
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  3. Jiawen Wang
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  4. Nan Tang
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  5. Huaping Dai
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  6. Chen Wang
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Correspondence to Huaping Dai or Chen Wang.

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Lv, T., Jiang, K., Wang, J. et al. Single-cell RNA sequencing profiling of the effects of aging on alveolar stem cells. Sci. China Life Sci. 62, 1028–1037 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11427-019-9583-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11427-019-9583-9

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