National Science Review. 2020.
A Single-cell Transcriptomic Atlas of Primate Pancreatic Islet Aging
Jingyi Li 1 4 5 6 , Yuxuan Zheng 2 8 9 , Pengze Yan 1 6 , Moshi Song 1 6 7 , Si Wang 1 5 6 7 , Liang Sun 13 , Zunpeng Liu 3 6 , Shuai Ma 1 6 7 , Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte 10 , Piu Chan 5 , Qi Zhou 3 6 7 , Weiqi Zhang 6 7 11 12 , Guang-Hui Liu 1 4 5 6 7 , Fuchou Tang 2 8 9 , Jing Qu 3 6 7
Aging-related degeneration of pancreatic islet cells contributes to impaired glucose tolerance and diabetes. Endocrine cells age heterogeneously, complicating the efforts to unravel the molecular drives underlying endocrine aging. To overcome these obstacles, we undertook single-cell RNA sequencing of pancreatic islet cells obtained from young and aged non-diabetic cynomolgus monkeys. Despite sex differences and increased transcriptional variations, aged β-cells showed increased unfolded protein response (UPR) along with the accumulation of protein aggregates. We observed transcriptomic dysregulation of UPR components linked to canonical ATF6 and IRE1 signaling pathways, comprising adaptive UPR during pancreatic aging. Notably, we found aging-related β-cell-specific upregulation of HSP90B1, an endoplasmic reticulum (ER)-located chaperone, impeded high glucose-induced insulin secretion. Our work decodes aging-associated transcriptomic changes that underlie pancreatic islet functional decay at the single-cell resolution and indicates that targeting UPR components may prevent loss of proteostasis, suggesting an avenue to delaying β-cell aging and preventing aging-related diabetes.
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