Fig. 8

The three NHRs ERα, GR, and RARα were sequentially expressed during human adrenal gland development. A Tracksplot illustrating expression of the genes encoding ERα (ESR1), GR (NR3C1), and RARα (RARA) in ten different cell populations from three normal human post-natal adrenal glands (31). These include cortex cells i.e., Zona fasciculata (hC3), Zona reticularis (hC8), Zona glomerulosa (hC5), and cortex (hC9), immune cells [macrophages (hC2), and T-cells (hC10)], endothelial (hC6), mesenchymal (hC7), and progenitor cells (hC1). Reference genes were ERBB3 for progenitors, DBH and TH for noradrenergic, and PNMT for adrenergic cells. Gene expression was computed as log (read counts per 10,000 per cell + 1). One-tailed Welch’s t-test was used with FDR < 0.01. B Matrix plot illustrating the average expression of ESR1, NR3C1, and RARA, and reference genes for progenitor (ERBB3) and chromaffin (PNMT) cells. Significance was tested with one-tailed Welch’s t-tests and a FDR threshold of 0.01. Gene expression was computed as log (read counts per 10,000 per cell + 1). The top average expression displayed was limited to 0.45 (for PNMT with an average value of 1.34 in chromaffin cells). C Pseudotime reconstruction of differentiating chromaffin cells in human adrenal glands. The population of progenitor cells in post-natal adrenal gland (pink) sourcing from chromaffin cells (blue), were separated from early to late (left panel). The reconstruction of this process indicated that gene expression elapses from an undifferentiated stem-like ( i.e., RTTN+) to an adrenergic signature (TH+, PNMT+). B-C Normalized expression magnitude from Low (0; dark blue) to High (1; yellow) as indicated to the right