Investigation of corneal limbal stem cells and immune repertoires in human infant cornea by multi-omics solution

This project aims to study two key points related to keratoplasty resistance. LSCs (limbal stem cells), which are crucial for the growth and repair of the cornea, have not been identified by specific markers. Furthermore, the characterization of corneal T/B cells has been rarely studied, even though they play a vital role in transplant rejection. To optimize donated corneas, researchers have utilized single-cell multi-omics methods such as single-cell 5’ mRNA and single-cell V(D)J sequencing to explore both LSCs and T/B immune repertoires (IR) simultaneously. Potential LSCs and dominant V(D)J types were analyzed, and the location of the cell marker was determined by RNA in situ sequencing. From the single-cell transcriptomics of 17,218 whole corneal cells, 20 cell subtypes were observed. A subcluster (0.3% of total cells) was identified as putative epithelial LSCs based on the known markers stating stem cells in the G0 cell cycle. TCR/BCR were rarely found in the cornea. The results suggest that GPHB5 could be a potential marker for limbal stem cells, but high-throughput single-cell VDJ sequencing is not the ideal method for analyzing corneal immune repertoires due to the rare presence of T/B cells.