single-cell nuclei isolation from homogenized human intermuscular adipose tissue samples for rna sequencing

Single Cell Nuclei Isolation from IMAT for Studying Gene Expression Profiles 

Intermuscular adipose tissue (IMAT) is an ectopic adipose depot residing between and around muscle fibers1. As described in detail in a recent review by Goodpaster et al., IMAT can be detected using high-resolution computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) (Figure 1A,B) and is found around and within muscle fibers throughout the entire body1. The quantity of IMAT varies greatly between individuals and is influenced by BMI, age, sex, race, and sedentariness2,3,4. Moreover, IMAT deposition is commonly seen in pathological conditions associated with muscle degeneration5, and numerous studies have documented increased IMAT mass in individuals with obesity, type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, and insulin resistance6,7,8,9. Nonetheless, the cellular and biological properties of IMAT are only beginning to be unraveled. The limited accessibility and the variation in IMAT locations and content throughout the body have challenged the collection of samples from this unique adipose depot2. Moreover, samples are easily &#39;contaminated&#39; with skeletal muscle (SM) upon collection, making the separation between the biological contribution from the different tissues difficult to decipher (Figure 1C). To this end, single nuclei RNA sequencing (snRNA-seq), which has gained considerable attention during the last decade, serves as an ideal methodology to allow for the separation of IMAT- and SM-derived gene expression patterns with single-cell resolution. Moreover, nuclei isolation is particularly useful for adipose tissue due to the large lipid-laden adipocytes, which are impossible to dissociate into single-cell suspension without compromising the integrity of the cells. Lastly, this technology holds the potential to discover novel markers of IMAT-specific adipocytes and uncover the composition and presence of different progenitor cell populations, as well as study the variation of the cell composition in pathological and normal conditions.
<img alt="Figure 1" class="xfigimg" src="/files/ftp_upload/66784/66784fig01.jpg" /> 
Figure 1: Images of IMAT. Representative magnetic resonance (MRI) image of IMAT from (A) a middle-aged lean female and (B) a middle-aged male with obesity. Red: subcutaneous adipose tissue, yellow: intermuscular adipose tissue, green: skeletal muscle, blue: bone. Image courtesy of Heather Cornnell, AdventHealth Translational Research Institute. (C) Fresh tissue sample with IMAT (encircled by dashed black line). Image courtesy of Meghan Hopf, AdventHealth Translational Research Institute and Bryan Bergman, University of Colorado. This figure has been modified with permission from Goodpaster et al.1. <a href="https://www.jove.com/files/ftp_upload/66784/66784fig01large.jpg" target="_blank">Please click here to view a larger version of this figure.</a>
A number of studies have been published from the livestock industry investigating the marbling of meat (IMAT in particular) in pigs, chickens, and cattle using single-cell (sc) and snRNA-seq10. These studies have identified several subpopulations of adipocytes and markers of potential progenitor cells of IMAT11,12,13; however, whether these cellular compositions translate to human IMAT is unknown. To our knowledge, only one study has looked into the cellular heterogeneity of human muscle with fatty infiltration, obtained from male patients with hip osteoarthritis, using snRNA-seq14. The investigators reported a small adipocyte population and several fibro-adipogenic progenitor (FAP) subpopulations within the large population of myonuclei14. Our study is the first to develop a method to directly interrogate IMAT manually dissected&#160;from human muscle for cellular composition using snRNA-seq.
Importantly, protocols for snRNA-seq need to be customized for the specific tissue studied, as the amount of tissue available and the physical properties of the specific tissue will dictate the optimal processing steps. The tissue yield for IMAT is typically small, often not exceeding 50 mg, even when performing ultrasound-guided biopsies. Hence, proper processing of this scarce tissue is essential. We believe that this protocol will serve as a valuable resource for researchers studying human IMAT.

Author Spotlight: Deciphering the Cellular Mysteries of Intermuscular Adipose Tissue in Humans

Isolation of Nuclei from Human Intermuscular Adipose Tissue and Downstream Single-Nuclei RNA Sequencing

Our research group is trying to understand the cell composition and cell-specific transcriptional profiles of intermuscular adipose tissue or IMAT in humans. IMAT is actually an ectopic adipose depot residing between and around muscle fibers. Computed tomography and MRI have been able to quantify IMAT volume and have recently shown that it increases with both age and BMI, and is also associated with muscle degenerative diseases.In vitro secretome studies have recently shown that IMAT secreted proteins have the ability to influence insulin sensitivity, inflammatory profiles, and also contractile protein expressions in human skeletal muscle. The limited amount of IMAT tissue collected during biopsies and the lipid laden nature of adipocytes make this tissue incompatible with tissue digestion and single cell RNA-Seq. Therefore, we wanted to develop a protocol that performed nuclei isolation on small amounts of tissue that could then be used in downstream single nuclei RNA-Seq.This protocol will enable researchers to determine the compositional and cell-specific transcriptional alterations that occur in IMAT in different metabolic disease states and in response to interventions. We hope that this information will be crucial in developing new therapeutic strategies to help alleviate metabolic disease by either targeting IMAT directly or its secreted factors. The field severely lacks data on the biology of IMAT, its cellular origins, and communication with other cells, resident both within and outside of IMAT, as well as its molecular responses to lifestyle interventions, such as diet and exercise or pharmacotherapy.All of these are key research questions for our group.

Single-Cell Nuclei Isolation from Homogenized Human Intermuscular Adipose Tissue Samples for RNA Sequencing

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JoVE Journal

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