Protocol for flow cytometry-assisted single-nucleus RNA sequencing of human and mouse adipose tissue with sample multiplexing.

Adipocyte size and fragility and commercial kit costs impose significant limitations on single-cell RNA sequencing of adipose tissue. Accordingly, we developed a workflow to isolate and sample-barcode nuclei from individual adipose tissue samples, integrating flow cytometry for quality control, counting, and precise nuclei pooling for direct loading onto the popular 10× Chromium controller. This approach can eliminate batch confounding, and significantly reduces poor-quality nuclei, ambient RNA contamination, and droplet loading-associated reagent waste, resulting in pronounced improvements in information content and cost efficiency.

Molecular Connectomics Reveals a Glucagon-Like Peptide 1 Sensitive Neural Circuit for Satiety.

Liraglutide and other agonists of the glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor (GLP-1RAs) are effective weight loss drugs, but how they suppress appetite remains unclear. GLP-1RAs inhibit hunger-promoting Agouti-related peptide (AgRP) neurons of the arcuate hypothalamus (Arc) but only indirectly, implicating synaptic afferents to AgRP neurons. To investigate, we developed a method combining rabies-based connectomics with single-nuclei transcriptomics. Applying this method to AgRP neurons in mice predicts 21 afferent subtypes in the mediobasal and paraventricular hypothalamus. Among these are Trh+ Arc neurons (TrhArc), which express the Glp1r gene and are activated by the GLP-1RA liraglutide. Activating TrhArc neurons inhibits AgRP neurons and decreases feeding in an AgRP neuron-dependent manner. Silencing TrhArc neurons increases feeding and body weight and reduces liraglutide's satiating effects. Our results thus demonstrate a widely applicable method for molecular connectomics, reveal the molecular organization of AgRP neuron afferents, and shed light on a neurocircuit through which GLP-1RAs suppress appetite.