Fig. 5: UPEC exposure results in human hybrid PC–IC RNA velocity toward A-ICs.
From: Kidney intercalated cells are phagocytic and acidify internalized uropathogenic Escherichia coli
At baseline (a) represented by 1 h of control saline exposure, human hybrid PC–ICs have an RNA velocity that moves counterclockwise toward PCs. Following 1 h of UPEC exposure, hybrid PC–IC’s RNA velocity changes directions toward A-ICs. Also, non-IC cell types, including proximal tubule, PCs, endothelial, and thick ascending loop of Henle (LOH) have much smaller arrows with UPEC exposure (b) compared to saline (a) indicating that these cells have decreased transcriptional activity in response to infection. In contrast, ICs had similar sized arrows with saline and UPEC exposure, indicating that they maintain their transcriptional activity when infected. The color shade of the collecting duct cell clusters matches the cluster color in Fig. 1, while the non-collecting duct kidney cell clusters are shaded gray.
