American journal of respiratory and critical care medicine
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Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med. · Sep 2024
Single-Cell RNA Sequencing Reveals Repair Features of Human Umbilical Cord Mesenchymal Stromal Cells.
Rationale: The chronic lung disease bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) is the most severe complication of extreme prematurity. BPD results in impaired lung alveolar and vascular development and long-term respiratory morbidity, for which only supportive therapies exist. Umbilical cord-derived mesenchymal stromal cells (UC-MSCs) improve lung structure and function in experimental BPD. ⋯ Moreover, scRNA-seq identified major histocompatibility complex class I as a molecular marker of nontherapeutic cells and associated with decreased lung retention. Conclusions: UC-MSCs with a progenitor-like transcriptome, but not with a fibroblast-like transcriptome, provide lung protection in experimental BPD. High expression of major histocompatibility complex class I is associated with reduced therapeutic benefit. scRNA-seq may be useful to identify subsets of MSCs with superior repair capacity for clinical application.