ArticleScientific reports2026
Molecular and spatial heterogeneity of macrophage like vascular smooth muscle cells in abdominal aortic aneurysms associated with intraluminal thrombus.
Article in Scientific reports, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is a common cardiovascular disease resulting in high mortality rate due to rupture. Intraluminal thrombus (ILT) is involved in AAA progression via both biomechanically protective and biochemically destructive properties. In this study, we utilized multiplex immunofluorescence and GeoMx Digital Spatial Profiler to explore the following issues: (a) Is ILT associated with the phenotypic switching of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) in aortic aneurysms? (b) Does ILT enrich macrophage-like VSMCs in aortic aneurysms? (c) What role do macrophage-like VSMCs play in aortic aneurysms? We found that the proportion of CD68 + SMA+ double-positive cells was significantly increased in AAA with thrombus. Differential gene expression, gene set enrichment and gene signature analyses were performed, in which enrichments were mainly related to VSMC phenotypic switching, matrix remodeling and inflammatory response. The cell-type identification by estimating relative subsets of RNA transcripts (CIBERSORT) was used to quantify the proportions of immune infiltration and the result was that the proportions of naive B cells, M1-type macrophages, and neutrophils were significantly higher in macrophage-like VSMC-rich areas of AAA with ILT. Furthermore, we predicted IL-6 and IL-1β as feature genes which displayed a positive correlation with neutrophil activation. Further, through in vitro assays, we showed that neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) induce the phenotypic switching of VSMCs through the NF-κB signaling pathway. This study, based on cutting-edge GeoMx Digital Spatial Profiling technology, systematically revealed the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying the phenotypic switching of VSMCs into macrophage-like cells in AAA associated with ILT. This discovery provides a novel cellular biology perspective for understanding the destructive role of ILT.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.