Single Cell RNA-sequencing of Pancreatic Circulating Tumor Cells

Circulating Tumor Cells (CTCs) are shed from primary tumors into the bloodstream, mediating the hematogenous spread of cancer to distant organs. Using a pancreatic cancer mouse model, we applied a microfluidic device to isolate CTCs independently of tumor epitopes, subjecting these to single cell RNA-sequencing. This study was conducted to determine the heterogeneity of pancreatic CTCs and to compare these CTCs to matched primary tumors, cell line controls (NB508 cancer cell line and MEF non-cancer cell line), primary tumor single cells, and normal leukocytes/WBCs. We profiled RNA from 75 single cells circulating in mouse blood enriched for circulating tumor cells from 5 mice, 12 single cells from a mouse embryonic fibroblast cell line, 16 single cells from the nb508 mouse pancreatic cancer cell line, 12 single mouse white blood cells, 18 single GFP lineage-traced circulating tumor cells from two mice, 20 single GFP lineage-traced cancer cells from the primary pancreatic tumor of a mouse, and 34 dilutions to 10 or 100 picograms of total RNA from mouse primary pancreatic tumors from 4 mice.