Xianliang Hou: Department of Clinical Medical Research Center, Guangdong Provincial Engineering Research Center of Autoimmune Disease Precision Medicine, The Second Clinical Medical College, Jinan University (Shenzhen People's Hospital), Shenzhen, China.
Yane Yang: Shenzhen Far-East Women & Children Hospital, Shenzhen, China.
Ping Li: Shenzhen Far-East Women & Children Hospital, Shenzhen, China.
Zhipeng Zeng: Department of Clinical Medical Research Center, Guangdong Provincial Engineering Research Center of Autoimmune Disease Precision Medicine, The Second Clinical Medical College, Jinan University (Shenzhen People's Hospital), Shenzhen, China.
Wenlong Hu: Department of Clinical Medical Research Center, Guangdong Provincial Engineering Research Center of Autoimmune Disease Precision Medicine, The Second Clinical Medical College, Jinan University (Shenzhen People's Hospital), Shenzhen, China.
Ruilian Zhe: Department of Clinical Medical Research Center, Guangdong Provincial Engineering Research Center of Autoimmune Disease Precision Medicine, The Second Clinical Medical College, Jinan University (Shenzhen People's Hospital), Shenzhen, China.
Xinqiong Liu: Department of Clinical Medical Research Center, Guangdong Provincial Engineering Research Center of Autoimmune Disease Precision Medicine, The Second Clinical Medical College, Jinan University (Shenzhen People's Hospital), Shenzhen, China.
Donge Tang: Department of Clinical Medical Research Center, Guangdong Provincial Engineering Research Center of Autoimmune Disease Precision Medicine, The Second Clinical Medical College, Jinan University (Shenzhen People's Hospital), Shenzhen, China.
Minglin Ou: Central Laboratory, Guangxi Health Commission Key Laboratory of Glucose and Lipid Metabolism Disorders, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Guilin Medical University, Guilin, China.
Yong Dai: Department of Clinical Medical Research Center, Guangdong Provincial Engineering Research Center of Autoimmune Disease Precision Medicine, The Second Clinical Medical College, Jinan University (Shenzhen People's Hospital), Shenzhen, China.
The liver is one of vital organs of the human body, and it plays an important role in the metabolism and detoxification. Moreover, fetal liver is one of the hematopoietic places during ontogeny. Understanding how this complex organ develops during embryogenesis will yield insights into how functional liver replacement tissue can be engineered and how liver regeneration can be promoted. Here, we combine the advantages of single-cell RNA sequencing and Spatial Transcriptomics (ST) technology for unbiased analysis of fetal livers over developmental time from 8 post-conception weeks (PCW) and 17 PCW in humans. We systematically identified nine cell types, and defined the developmental pathways of the major cell types. The results showed that human fetal livers experienced blood rapid growth and immigration during the period studied in our experiments, and identified the differentially expressed genes, and metabolic changes in the developmental process of erythroid cells. In addition, we focus on the expression of liver disease related genes, and found that 17 genes published and linked to liver disease mainly expressed in megakaryocyte and endothelial, hardly expressed in any other cell types. Together, our findings provide a comprehensive and clear understanding of the differentiation processes of all main cell types in the human fetal livers, which may provide reference data and information for liver disease treatment and liver regeneration.
