Single-cell transcriptomics in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine

Regenerative medicine and tissue engineering aim to promote functional rebuilding of damaged tissue. Comprehensively profiling cell identity, function and interaction in healthy tissues, as well as understanding how these change upon tissue disruption, such as that caused by injury, ageing or infection, is foundational to advancing tissue engineering and regenerative therapeutics. Tissue injury response is a highly dynamic process driven by complex interactions between immune and stromal cell populations, with dysregulation leading to deleterious fibrosis and chronic inflammation. Advances in single-cell RNA sequencing now allow in-depth mapping of the complex cellular response to injury and biomaterial implantation. In this Review, we first describe the fundamentals of sequencing and computational methods for the generation and analysis of high-dimensional single-cell RNA sequencing data sets. We then highlight how these methods can be applied to study tissue injury responses and guide the rational design of biomaterials and regenerative therapeutics.