GEO series

Human and mouse adrenal glands are characterized by species-specific steroidogenic states and tissue turnover [scRNA-seq]

GSE253849 Homo sapiens (human) Single-cell RNA-seq 22 samples Submitted 2026/05/11 Platform GPL24247Platform GPL24676

At a glance

Single-cell RNA-seq · human · 22 samples

What it is: Single-cell RNA-seqGene activity measured in thousands of individual cells, so cell types can be told apart.
Organism: Homo sapiens (human)
Samples: 22 samples: 22 samples, each with a distinct title — no replicated groupsGroups are read from the sample names, not from the paper. Check the list below.
Data you can get: A processed table (series matrix) and supplementary files from NCBI; the raw sequencing reads from ENA. Which of these hold counts depends on the study, so check the file list.

Summary (written by the submitters)

The adrenal gland is a fundamental endocrine organ exhibiting constant renewal. Despite extensive work in rodents, human-specific aspects of hormone-producing cell populations, stem cells, and self-renewal mechanisms are not fully understood. To fill this knowledge gap and address species-specific features, we generated high density single-cell and spatial transcriptomics atlases of adult human and mouse adrenal glands using Visium, VisiumHD and Stereo-seq, covering a spectrum of sexes and ages.

Read the full summary ↓

Our comparisons between human and murine adrenal gland revealed significant evolutionary divergence despite homology in function of specific regions, which questiones the applicability of mouse models in studies of human adrenal disorders. Self-renewal mechanisms in adrenocortical populations that were previously discovered in mice also revealed human-specific features or were confronted by human-specific transitions not evident in rodents. The latter included specific perivascular mesenchymal progenitors, and dispersed SF1+/EZH2+ progenitor cells, which implies that human adrenocortical cells may be renewed in a localized manner in addition to the centripetal model. We also engaged in cross-comparison of our adult human adrenals with fetal stages to reveal developmental strategies still operating as a part of self-renewal in adults. Unexpectedly, human SF1+/EZH2+ progenitors turned out to be operating during adrenocortical development and later during adult stages, albeit in different degrees. At last, we revealed sex-specific differences in human cholesterol metabolism and other features reflecting human and mouse sexual dimorphism in adrenal glands. Overall, our new comparative mouse-human atlases shall provide an additional resource for further molecular interrogations of adrenal gland biology and pathology.

This dataset

Open GSE253849 in finder → Find more RNA-seq datasets →

Download · which file do I need?

Direct links to NCBI and ENA, no account and no request form. Pick by what you want to do: take the small processed table to look, the supplementary files to re-analyse, or the original raw data to start over.

1 · Just have a look

Processed table

The series matrix: one table of values per sample as the submitters processed it. The smallest download, and it opens in Excel or R. Start here to see what the data look like.

Series matrix ↓

2 · Re-analyse it

Supplementary files

The count tables and other files the authors uploaded. Take only the samples you need, or the whole study as GSE253849_RAW.tar (it can run to tens of gigabytes).

All supplementary files ↗ Whole study · RAW.tar ↓

3 · Start from the raw reads

Raw sequencing reads

The original FASTQ files, straight from the sequencer, held at ENA. Large, and you align them yourself, so only choose this if you need to re-process the study from scratch.

Raw reads on ENA ↗

What the files usually look like: Single-cell studies usually ship their counts as 10x files (matrix.mtx, barcodes.tsv, features.tsv), an .h5 file, or an .rds / .h5ad object that Seurat or Scanpy can open. Look for those among the supplementary files.

Also filed as BioProject PRJNA1067569 and SRA study SRP485201. Searching any of these in the dataset finder brings you back here.

NCBI GEO page ↗

Study design

22 samples, each with a distinct title — no replicated groups

Any grouping that defines a comparison lives in the sample characteristics, which GEO records separately from the titles.

How we read this: Read from 22 sample titles: 22 distinct titles with little repetition. These groups are guessed from the sample names, not taken from the paper, so check them against the sample list below before relying on them.

Samples in this study

GSM8028731 Human_adult_adrenal_Female_18_years, healthy adult, scRNAseq
GSM8028732 Human_adult_adrenal_Female_53_years_1, healthy adult, scRNAseq
GSM8028733 Human_adult_adrenal_Female_53_years_2, healthy adult, scRNAseq
GSM8028734 Human_adult_adrenal_Female_59_years, healthy adult, scRNAseq
GSM8028735 Human_adult_adrenal_Female_64_years, healthy adult, scRNAseq
GSM8028736 Human_adult_adrenal_Male_39_years, healthy adult, scRNAseq
GSM8028737 Human_adult_adrenal_Male_48_years, healthy adult, scRNAseq
GSM8028738 Human_adult_adrenal_Male_52_years, healthy adult, scRNAseq
GSM8028739 Human_adult_adrenal_Male_54_years, healthy adult, scRNAseq
GSM8028740 Human_adult_adrenal_Male_57_years, healthy adult, scRNAseq
GSM8028741 Human_adult_adrenal_Male_73_years, healthy adult, scRNAseq
GSM8028742 Mouse_adult_adrenal_Female_1, healthy adult, scRNAseq
GSM8028743 Mouse_adult_adrenal_Female_2, healthy adult, scRNAseq
GSM8028744 Mouse_adult_adrenal_Female_3, healthy adult, scRNAseq
GSM8028745 Mouse_adult_adrenal_Female_4, healthy adult, scRNAseq
GSM8028746 Mouse_adult_adrenal_Female_5, healthy adult, scRNAseq
GSM8028747 Mouse_adult_adrenal_Mixed_1, healthy adult, scRNAseq
GSM8028748 Mouse_adult_adrenal_Male_1, healthy adult, scRNAseq
GSM8028749 Mouse_adult_adrenal_Male_2, healthy adult, scRNAseq
GSM8028750 Mouse_adult_adrenal_Male_3, healthy adult, scRNAseq
GSM8028751 Mouse_adult_adrenal_Male_4, healthy adult, scRNAseq
GSM8028752 Mouse_adult_adrenal_Male_5, healthy adult, scRNAseq

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