Characterization of RPE subpopulation gene expression and cell surface protein composition using single cell sequencing

The retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) has traditionally been considered a homogenous monolayer, however differences in morphology, gene expression and disease susceptibility of RPE cells in different retinal regions has recently been described. To further catalog RPE subpopulation diversity, we have isolated RPE cells from both donated adult human eyes and RPE derived from RPE stem cells (RPESC) to characterize transcriptomic and cell surface differences within the native and clinically relevant cultured RPE subpopulations using CITE-Seq.