Screening and identification of muscle pericyte selective markers.

ABSTRACT: Pericytes, which share markers with smooth muscle cells (SMCs), are heterogenous cells. Pericytes in the brain and skeletal muscle have different embryonic origins, representing distinct subpopulations. One challenge in the field is that there are no subpopulation-specific pericyte markers. Here, we compared the transcriptomes of muscle pericytes and SMCs, and identified 741 muscle pericyte-enriched genes and 564 muscle SMC-enriched genes. Gene ontology analysis uncovered distinct biological processes and molecular functions in muscle pericytes and SMCs. Interestingly, the Venn diagram revealed only one gene shared by brain and muscle pericytes, suggesting that they are indeed distinct subpopulations with different transcriptional profiles. We further validated that GSN co-localized with P

SUBMITTER: Ruan J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12332025 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature