Brain-derived exosomal hemoglobin transfer contributes to neuronal mitochondrial homeostasis under hypoxia
Data files
Jun 18, 2025 version files 1.97 GB
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README.md
2.13 KB
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snRNA_Con_H14d_seurat.rds
1.97 GB
Abstract
Hypoxia is an important physiological stress that causes nerve injuries and several brain diseases. However, the mechanism of brain response to hypoxia remains unclear, thus limiting the development of interventional strategies. This study conducted combined analyses of single-nucleus transcriptome sequencing and extracellular vesicle transcriptome sequencing on hypoxic mouse brains, described cell-cell communication in the brain under hypoxia from intercellular and extracellular dimensions, confirmed that hemoglobin mRNA was transferred from non-neuronal cells to neurons, and eventually expressed. Then we further explored the role of exosomal hemoglobin transfer in vitro, using human-derived cell lines, and clarified that hypoxia promoted the transfer and expression of exosomal hemoglobin between endothelial cells and neurons. And we found the vital function of exosomal hemoglobin to protect against neurological injury by maintaining mitochondrial homeostasis in neurons. In conclusion, this study identified a novel mechanism of ‘mutual aid’ in hypoxia responses in the brain, involving exosomal hemoglobin transfer, clarified the important role of exosomal communication in the process of brain stress response, and provided a novel interventional perspective for hypoxia-related brain diseases.
Dataset DOI: 10.5061/dryad.r7sqv9sq4
Description of the data and file structure
This dataset contains processed single-nucleus RNA sequencing (snRNA-seq) data obtained from mouse brain tissue under chronic hypoxia. Two experimental groups were included: a control group and a group exposed to hypoxia for 14 days. The data were generated to investigate transcriptional alterations and cell-type-level responses associated with prolonged hypoxic stress in the brain.
Files and variables
File: snRNA_Con_H14d_seurat.rds
Description:
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snRNA_Con_H14d_seurat.rds:
An R object in Seurat format containing the processed single-nucleus RNA-seq data for two mouse brain experimental groups:
- "Con": control group
- "H14d": mice exposed to hypoxia for 28 days
Variables contained within the .rds Seurat object include:
- Expression matrix (@assays$RNA@data)
- Normalized log-transformed gene expression (log-normalized counts)
- Rows: genes; Columns: single nuclei
- Unit: log-normalized counts
- Missing values: not applicable (genes with zero counts not explicitly removed)
- Metadata (@meta.data)
- orig.ident: Sample group identity (Con or H14d)
- nFeature_RNA: Number of genes detected per nucleus
- nCount_RNA: Total RNA counts per nucleus
- seurat_clusters: Cluster label assigned by Seurat clustering
- Other standard Seurat metadata fields
Code/software
This dataset is provided as an .rds file containing a Seurat object. To load and explore the data, the following free and open-source software is required:
- R (version ≥ 4.1.0)
- Seurat package (version ≥ 4.3.0)
Additional packages commonly used in the downstream analysis include:
- dplyr, ggplot2, patchwork – for data manipulation and visualization
- CellChat (version ≥ 1.6.1) – for intercellular communication analysis
- SingleR (optional) – for reference-based cell type annotation
Access information
NA