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Vascular smooth muscle cell state trajectories mediate molecular mechanisms of coronary disease risk [RNA-seq]

ABSTRACT: To investigate the genetic basis of SMC cell state trajectories that underlie the SMC component of CAD causality, we developed a dense timecourse single cell transcriptomic and epigenomic mapping of atherosclerosis in a murine disease model with additional high throughput spatial RNA in situ hybridization to localize . We further performed parallel knockout studies with single cell transcriptomics and epigenomics of validated CAD gene Tcf21 to understand its molecular mechanisms in SMC transition. We identified TEAD1 and CEBPB to share significant binding sites with coronary artery disease risk gene TCF21 at enhancer sites across the genome and characterize their genomic relationships through a combination of chromatin immunoprecipitation sequencing for TEAD1, CEBPB, and marker of enhancer activation H3K27ac. We further perform bulk RNAseq to understand the functional effects of TEAD1 knockdown in immortalized smooth muscle cells.

ORGANISM(S): Homo sapiens

PROVIDER: GSE316714 | GEO | 2026/02/25

REPOSITORIES: GEO

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Project description:Recent genome wide association studies have identified a number of genes that contribute to the risk for coronary heart disease. One such gene, TCF21, encodes a basic-helix-loop-helix transcription factor believed to serve a critical role in the development of epicardial progenitor cells that give rise to coronary artery smooth muscle cells (SMC) and cardiac fibroblasts. Using reporter gene and immunolocalization studies with mouse and human tissues we have found that vascular TCF21 expression in the adult is restricted primarily to adventitial cells associated with coronary arteries and also medial SMC in the proximal aorta of mouse. Genome wide RNA-Seq studies in human coronary artery SMC (HCASMC) with siRNA knockdown found a number of putative TCF21 downstream pathways identified by enrichment of terms related to CAD, including “vascular disease,” “disorder of artery,” and “occlusion of artery” as well as disease-related cellular functions including “cellular movement,” and “cellular growth and proliferation.” In vitro studies in HCASMC demonstrated that TCF21 expression promotes proliferation and migration and inhibits SMC lineage marker expression. Detailed in situ expression studies with reporter gene and lineage tracing revealed that vascular wall cells expressing Tcf21 before disease initiation migrate into vascular lesions of ApoE-/- and Ldlr-/- mice. While Tcf21 lineage traced cells are distributed throughout the early lesions, in mature lesions they contribute to the formation of a subcapsular layer of cells, and others become associated with the fibrous cap. The lineage traced fibrous cap cells activate expression of SMC markers and growth factor receptor genes. Taken together, these data suggest that TCF21 may have a role regulating the differentiation state of SMC precursor cells that migrate into vascular lesions and contribute to the fibrous cap and more broadly, in view of the association of this gene with human CAD, provide evidence that these processes may be a mechanism for CAD risk attributable to the vascular wall.

Project description:Recent meta-analyses of genome wide association studies (GWAS) have identified approximately 150 loci that are associated with coronary artery disease (CAD). To link the causal genes in these loci to functional transcriptional networks, we have used chromatin immunoprecipitation sequencing (ChIP-Seq) with human coronary artery smooth muscle cells (HCASMC) to investigate the cellular and molecular program downstream of one CAD associated transcription factor, TCF21. Analysis of the TCF21 downstream target genes for enrichment of molecular and cellular annotation terms identified processes relevant to CAD pathophysiology, including growth factor binding (PDGF, VEGF), matrix interactions (“integrin binding,” “cell adhesion”), and smooth muscle contraction (“actin filament-based processes,” “actin cytoskeleton”). Motif searches of peak sequences confirmed the canonical E-box CAGCTG as the likely binding sequence for TCF21, but also identified bZip motifs that coordinate binding of AP1 family transcription factors. Follow-up ChIP-Seq studies verified enriched binding of bZip factors JUN and JUND to TCF21 target loci. Importantly, analysis of the representation of CAD genes among TCF21 target loci showed highly significant enrichment. Further, expression quantitative trait variation mapped to target genes of TCF21 were significantly enriched among variants with low P-values in the GWAS analyses, and single nucleotide polymorphisms within TCF21 peaks were shown to be in linkage disequilibrium with CAD-associated SNPs, suggesting a functional interaction between TCF21 binding and causal variants in other CAD disease loci. Thus, data and analyses presented here provide evidence for a transcriptional regulatory network that links TCF21 function in smooth muscle cells with a number of other CAD-associated genes, and suggest that study of GWAS transcription factors may be a highly useful approach to identifying disease gene interactions and thus pathways that may be relevant to complex disease etiology. We did ChIP-Seq on human coronary artery smooth muscle cells grown in SmGM-2 Smooth Muscle Growth Medium-2 including hEGF, insulin, hFGF-B and FBS, but without antibiotics (Lonza, #CC-3182. We did immunoprecipitations with two antibodies (Sigma HPA013189 and Abcam 49475). We conducted two biological replicates for each antibody, and also did an IgG control for these studies. For these experiments, sequencing was done on an Illumina GAII, single end reads. In separate set of experiments we performed ChIP-Seq for JUN (Ab sc-1694) and JUND (Ab sc-74) with the same HCASMC cells under the same culture conditions. For these studies we did one replicate for each antibody, and also included an IgG control. Sequencing for the JUN and JUND studies was paired ends, on an Illumina HiSeq machine.

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Vascular smooth muscle cell state trajectories mediate molecular mechanisms of coronary disease risk [RNA-seq]

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