Physiopathologie du foie à l'échelle de la cellule unique : caractérisation de l'hétérogénéité cellulaire et identification de nouvelles cibles thérapeutiques dans les maladies hépatiques chroniques et le cancer hépatocellulaire

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a leading cause of death worldwide and the current treatments are unsatisfactory. One reason is the limited knowledge on the complexity and microenvironment of healthy and diseased liver. To address this gap, we have developed a single cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) pipeline for primary human liver tissues. We have assembled an atlas of human liver cells and compared the scRNA-seq profile of normal liver and HCC. The atlas revealed an unknown heterogeneity within the main populations of liver cells, the transcriptomic zonation of endothelial cells and the existence of an epithelial progenitor in the adult liver capable of differentiating into both cholangiocytes and hepatocytes. ScRNA-seq analysis uncovered the marked cell heterogeneity of HCC, its microenvironment changes at single-cell level and the interactions between tumor cells and hepatitis B virus discovering previously unknown pathways and drivers of hepatocarcinogenesis.