Fig. 3: Genetic signature studies reveal similarities in porcine and human biliary tree stem cells.

a Heatmap of the correlation of porcine biliary tree stem cells (pBTSCs, 5 samples) and four human cell subpopulations (hBTSCs, hHpSCs, hHBs, and hAHeps) were prepared for the similarity studies. The RNA-seq data of the five porcine biliary tree stem cells were mixed with the RNA-seq data of the four human cell subpopulations, and then the correlation analysis was done of all five types of cells for determining the lineage stages of the porcine cell subpopulations. The correlation heatmap of the five types of cells indicated two main clusters, pBTSCs cluster with hBTSCs and hHpSCs, while hHBs cluster with hAHeps. b Top variable 3000 genes among the five types of cells (pBTSCs, hBTSCs, hHpSCs, hHBs, and hAHeps) also show the same pattern as the correlation heatmap. pBTSCs share similar expression patterns with hBTSCs and hHpSCs, while a more distinguished pattern with precursor or mature lineages. c Clustering analysis based on 174 differentially expressed between hBTSCs and hHpSCs. d Clustering analysis of pBTSCs and four human lineages based on 90 up-regulated genes in hHpSCs compared to hBTSCs. e PCA analysis was processed for determining the equivalent lineage stage of pBTSCs in human hepato-biliary stem cell lineages. f pBTSCs, hBTSCs, hHpSCs, and hHBs were all compared with hAHeps. In all scatterplots, individual genes are plotted based on log₂(fold change, FC) value. R is Pearson’s coefficient of significant genes. g Venn plot of common DEGs in Fig. 2f, showing common DEGs of hBTSCs, pBTSCs, and hHpSCs, and compared to hAHeps, respectively. The common DEGs among hBTSCs, pBTSCs, and hHpSCs were named as intersected DEGs. h and i Pearson’s coefficient of significant genes were used indicating further the similarities of DEGs (pBTSCs:hAHeps) compared to DEGs(hBTSCs:hAHeps) or DEGs(hHpSCs:hAHeps). R represents Pearson’s coefficient of DEGs. R_all = Pearson’s coefficient of all DEGs.