ArticleImmunometabolism2021
Meta-Analysis of Smooth Muscle Lineage Transcriptomes in Atherosclerosis and Their Relationships to In Vitro Models.
Article in Immunometabolism, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 36 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
36 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 62 citations in OpenAlex.
- Integrative single-cell meta-analysis reveals disease-relevant vascular cell states and markers in human atherosclerosis.Cell reports · 2023Pooled it
- Next-Generation and Single-Cell Sequencing Approaches to Study Atherosclerosis and Vascular Inflammation Pathophysiology: A Systematic Review.Frontiers in cardiovascular medicine · 2022Pooled it
- Cell-Surface Signatures and Targets of Modulated Vascular Smooth Muscle Cells in Atherosclerosis: From State Identification to Precision Intervention.Journal of cardiovascular development and disease · 2026Review
- Transcriptomic, Specific Marker, and Pathway Analysis of Smooth Muscle Cell Foam Cells Relative to Macrophage Foam Cells in Human Atherosclerosis.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- A rare pre-existing progenitor-like Primed SMC compartment is the dominant inferred source of SMC-derived cellularity in vascular injury and atherosclerosis.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- PERK Is Dispensable for Smooth Muscle Cell Phenotype Switching in Atherosclerosis.Arteriosclerosis, thrombosis, and vascular biology · 2026Article
- Atherosclerosis Profiling Reveals BHLHE40 as a Candidate Modulator of VSMC.Circulation research · 2026Article
- HDL Regulates TGFβ-Receptor Lipid Raft Partitioning, Restoring Contractile Features of Cholesterol-Loaded Vascular Smooth Muscle Cells.JACC. Basic to translational science · 2026Article
- Smooth muscle cell phenotypic modulation during atherosclerosis.Vascular pharmacology · 2026Review
- Smooth muscle cells in atherosclerosis: essential but overlooked translational perspectives.European heart journal · 2025Review
- Mapping atherogenesis mechanisms in smooth muscle cells by targeting genes linked to coronary artery disease.iScience · 2025Article
- Current status and challenges of multi-omics research using animal models of atherosclerosis.Journal of molecular and cellular cardiology plus · 2025Review
- Premature cell senescence promotes vascular smooth muscle cell phenotypic modulation and resistance to re-differentiation.Cardiovascular research · 2025Article
- Delineation of a thrombin receptor-stimulated vascular smooth muscle cell transition generating cells in the plaque-stabilizing fibrous cap.Cardiovascular research · 2025Article
- Single-Cell Multimodal Profiling Reveals a Novel CD26Arteriosclerosis, thrombosis, and vascular biology · 2025Article
- Single-cell RNA-seq analysis of mouse carotid artery under disturbed flow and human carotid plaques identifies key cell populations in atherosclerosis development.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Smooth Muscle Cell-Derived Fibronectin Promotes an Atheroprotective Smooth Muscle Cell Phenotype Associated With Altered NO-cGMP Signaling.Journal of the American Heart Association · 2025Article
- Single-cell analysis identifies the CNP/GC-B/cGMP axis as marker and regulator of modulated VSMCs in atherosclerosis.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Network-based prioritization and validation of regulators of vascular smooth muscle cell proliferation in disease.Nature cardiovascular research · 2024Article
- High-Dimensional Single-Cell Multimodal Landscape of Human Carotid Atherosclerosis.Arteriosclerosis, thrombosis, and vascular biology · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundVascular smooth muscle cells (VSMC) exhibit phenotypic plasticity in atherosclerotic plaques, and among other approaches, has been modeled in vitro by cholesterol loading.
methodsMeta-analysis of scRNA-seq data from VSMC lineage traced cells across five experiments of murine atherosclerosis was performed. In vivo expression profiles were compared to three in vitro datasets of VSMCs loaded with cholesterol and three datasets of polarized macrophages.
resultsWe identified 24 cell clusters in the meta-analysis of single cells from mouse atherosclerotic lesions with notable heterogeneity across studies, especially for macrophage populations. Trajectory analysis of VSMC lineage positive cells revealed several possible paths of state transitions with one traversing from contractile VSMC to macrophages by way of a proliferative cell cluster. Transcriptome comparisons between in vivo and in vitro states underscored that data from three in vitro cholesterol-treated VSMC experiments did not mirror cell state transitions observed in vivo. However, all in vitro macrophage profiles analyzed (M1, M2, and oxLDL) were more similar to in vivo profiles of macrophages than in vitro VSMCs were to in vivo profiles of VSMCs. oxLDL loaded macrophages showed the most similarity to in vivo states. In contrast to the in vitro data, comparison between mouse and human in vivo data showed many similarities.
conclusionsIdentification of the sources of variation across single cell datasets in atherosclerosis will be an important step towards understanding VSMC fate transitions in vivo. Also, we conclude that cholesterol-loading in vitro is insufficient to model the VSMC cell state transitions observed in vivo, which underscores the need to develop better cell models. Mouse models, however, appear to reproduce a number of the features of VSMCs in human plaques.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.