Single-Cell RNA Sequencing of Human Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Macrophages for Quality Control of The Cell Therapy Product

Macrophages exhibit high plasticity to achieve their roles in maintaining tissue homeostasis, innate immunity, tissue repair and regeneration. Therefore, macrophages are being evaluated for cell-based therapeutics against inflammatory disorders and cancer. To overcome the limitation related to expansion of primary macrophages and cell numbers, human pluripotent stem cell (hPSC)-derived macrophages are considered as an alternative source of primary macrophages for clinical application. However, the quality of hPSC-derived macrophages with respect to the biological homogeneity remains still unclear. We previously reported a technique to produce hPSC-derived macrophages referred to as iMACs, which is amenable for scale-up. In this study, we have evaluated the biological homogeneity of the iMACs using a transcriptome dataset of 6,230 iMACs obtained by single-cell RNA sequencing. The dataset provides a valuable genomic profile for understanding the molecular characteristics of hPSC-derived macrophage cells and provide a measurement of transcriptomic homogeneity. Our study highlights the usefulness of single cell RNA-seq data in quality control of the cell-based therapy products.

Automated summary

Macrophages play important roles in maintaining tissue homeostasis, immune response, and tissue repair. They have potential therapeutic applications in treating inflammatory disorders and cancer. Human pluripotent stem cell (hPSC)-derived macrophages are considered as an alternative source of primary macrophages for clinical use. However, the quality of these hPSC-derived macrophages is still unclear. In this study, we evaluated the biological homogeneity of hPSC-derived macrophages and demonstrated the usefulness of single cell RNA sequencing data in quality control of cell-based therapy products.