Poster Presentations
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Single Cell mRNA Transcription and Metabolic Profiling of Intercellular Interactions in the pre-malignant progression of Barrett’s esophagus
Jia Zeng, PhD Candidate, The Biodesign Institute
In multicellular organisms, cell-cell interactions are critical to the proper regulation of various core cellular processes, such as homeostasis, development, and stimulus response. Abnormal intercellular communication is one of the key factors in the pathogenesis and progression of many diseases including cancer. Understanding the role intercellular communications play within tumor microenvironment could help discover new cancer biosignatures and more effective prognostic, diagnostic and management strategies of the disease. We present a study on alterations in gene transcription levels as a result of intercellular interactions in individual cells derived from different stages of the pre-malignant progression in Barrett’s esophagus. Using a suite of advanced technological platforms, including single-cell manipulation, metabolic phenotype (oxygen consumption rates, mitochondria membrane potential) and mRNA expression level measurements in single cells, we analyze the effects of homotypic and heterotypic interactions on cell functioning. We perform whole-transcriptome analysis and reverse transcription quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) on individual cells to measure changes in gene transcription levels due to cell-cell interactions. We identify a set of genes related to metabolism whose transcription levels are significantly altered by the presence of heterotypic interactions. We correlate changes in gene transcription with alterations in metabolic phenotype and discuss their functional relevance in the context of pre-malignant to malignant progression in cancer.
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