[Application of single-cell transcriptome sequencing in mechanistic toxicology].

Traditional bulk RNA sequencing assesses the average expression level of genes in tissues rather than the differences in cellular responses. Accordingly, it is hard to differentiate sensitive responding cells, leading to inaccurate identification of toxicity pathways. Single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) isolated single cells from tissue and subjected them to cell subtypes-specific transcriptome analysis. This technique in toxicological studies realizes the heterogeneous cellular responses in the tissue microenvironment upon chemical exposure. Thus it helps to identify sensitive responding cells and key molecular events, providing a powerful tool and a new perspective for exploring the mechanisms of toxicity and the modes of action. This review summarizes the development, principle, method, application and limitations of scRNA-seq in mechanistic toxicological researches, and discusses the prospect of multi-directional applications.传统转录组测序（bulk RNA-seq）可以获得基因在群体细胞中的平均表达水平，但忽略了细胞反应存在差异性，很难发现敏感效应细胞，导致毒性通路识别不准确。单细胞转录组测序（scRNA-seq）解离组织单细胞并对其测序，通过细胞分群进行细胞亚群特异性转录组分析。该技术可获取化合物暴露后组织微环境中的细胞异质性反应特征，从而有助于准确判别敏感效应细胞及关键分子事件，为探索毒性机制和毒作用模式提供强大工具和崭新视角。本文概述了单细胞转录组测序的发展、原理、方法以及在毒理学机制中的应用和局限性，并展望了其未来多方向的应用前景。.