Urinary Single-Cell Transcriptomics in Kidney Transplantation: Elucidation of Donor-Recipient Cellular Dynamics and Fibrogenic Stress - PubMed
3 days ago
- #Cellular Dynamics
- #Urinary scRNA-seq
- #Kidney Transplantation
- Urinary single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) is a noninvasive method for studying kidney allograft biology.
- A workflow was applied to 12 kidney recipients, showing accurate donor-recipient cell origin assignment in urine despite low-input challenges.
- Most urinary cells were recipient-derived, indicating urine reflects the host immune environment more than graft parenchyma.
- Analysis revealed conserved epithelial programs but enriched immune and proliferative subsets in transplant urine, suggesting active immune surveillance and repair.
- Urinary podocytes showed epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition linked to fibrogenic stress.
- Recipient T cells displayed activated cytotoxic states, while rare donor T cells remained quiescent.
- Donor-derived macrophages exhibited antigen-presenting and chemotactic signatures, indicating persistent functional graft-resident macrophages in urine.
- Urinary scRNA-seq validates as a robust platform for monitoring epithelial injury, immune activation, and graft adaptation noninvasively.
- This approach extends molecular monitoring beyond biopsy, providing scalable dynamic assessment of kidney allograft health.