Metabolomics,Unknown,Transcriptomics,Genomics,Proteomics

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Single-cell RNA-seq Reveals Unique Vascular Smooth Muscle Cell Phenotypes in Culture

ABSTRACT: Background. Heterogeneity in vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) has been classically defined with a small set of predefined markers. Single cell genomics provides a unique unbiased approach to evaluate VSMC phenotypes. Objectives. The goal of this study was to define the heterogeneity of primary murine VSMCs grown in culture. VSMCs grown in culture are routinely used as a model of VSMCs in the vessel wall. We wanted to better understand the assumptions of this model. RNA sequencing was performed on single aortic VSMCs from 3-4 month old male mice at passages 1 and 2 (P1 and P2). Single cell contractility measurements were performed using Traction Force microscopy.

ORGANISM(S): Mus musculus

SUBMITTER: Rod Staggs

PROVIDER: E-GEOD-79436 | biostudies-arrayexpress |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-arrayexpress

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Project description:Vascular smooth muscle cell (VSMC) dysregulation is a hallmark of vascular disease, including atherosclerosis. In particular, the majority of cells within atherosclerotic lesions are generated from pre-existing VSMCs and a clonal nature has been documented for VSMC-derived cells in multiple disease models. However, the mechanisms underlying the generation of oligoclonal lesions and the phenotype of proliferating VSMCs are unknown.Here we analyse clonal dynamics in multi-color lineage-traced animals over time after vessel injury to understand the cellular mechanisms underlying clonal VSMC expansion in disease.We demonstrate that VSMC proliferation is initiated in a small fraction of VSMCs that initially expand clonally in the medial layer and then migrate to form the oligoclonal neointima. Selective activation of VSMC proliferation also occurs in vitro, suggesting that this is a cell-autonomous feature. Mapping of VSMC trajectories using single-cell RNA-sequencing reveals a continuum of cellular states after injury and suggests that VSMC proliferation initiates in cells that have downregulated the contractile phenotype and show evidence of pronounced phenotypic switching. We show that proliferation is associated with induced expression of stem cell antigen 1 (SCA1) and the expression signature previously identified in SCA1+ VSMCs in healthy arteries. A remarkably increased proliferation of SCA1+ VSMCs, directly validated in functional assays, indicates that SCA1+ VSMCs act as "first responders" in vascular injury. Early atherosclerotic lesions also had clonal VSMC contribution and we show that the proliferation-associated injury response is conserved in plaque VSMCs, extending these findings to atherosclerosis. Finally, we identify VSMCs in healthy human arteries that correspond to the SCA1+ state in mouse VSMCs and show that genes identified as differentially expressed in this human VSMC subpopulation are enriched for genes showing genetic association with cardiovascular disease. We show that cell-intrinsic, selective VSMC activation drives clonal proliferation after injury and in atherosclerosis. Our study suggests that healthy mouse and human arteries contain VSMCs characterised by expression of disease-associated genes that are predisposed for proliferation. Targeting such "first responder" cells in patients undergoing vascular surgery could effectively prevent injury-associated VSMC activation and neoatherosclerosis.

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Single-cell RNA-seq Reveals Unique Vascular Smooth Muscle Cell Phenotypes in Culture

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