The respiratory system undergoes a diversity of structural, biochemical, and functional changes necessary for adaptation to air breathing at birth. To identify the heterogeneity of pulmonary cell types and dynamic changes in gene expression mediating adaptation to respiration, we performed single cell RNA-seq (scRNA-seq) analyses of mouse lung on postnatal day 1 (PND1). An iterative cell type identification strategy was used to unbiasedly identify the heterogeneity of murine pulmonary cell types. Distinct populations of epithelial, endothelial, mesenchymal, and immune cells are identified, each containing distinct subpopulations. Temporal changes in RNA expression patterns were compared before and after birth to identify signaling pathways selectively activated in specific pulmonary cell types, including activation of cell stress and the unfolded protein response during perinatal adaptation of the lung. Present data provide a single cell view of the adaptation to air breathing after birth.
This repository provides customized scripts to reproduce our scRNA-seq analysis of mouse lung at PND1.
Developed by Minzhe Guo and Yina Du.