Single-cell transcriptomic profiling of aortic plaque cells from myeloid-specific Lipa overexpression and control mice on an Ldlr-/- background

We performed single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) to determine the relative abundance and transcriptomic profiles of cell subclusters in atherosclerotic aortas from control mice and mice with myeloid-specific Lipa overexpression, both on the Ldlr-/- background and fed a Western diet for 16 weeks. Overall design: We generated a knock-in (KI) mouse model for Cre-loxP–mediated overexpression of Lipa (NM_001111100) on a C57BL/6 background by targeting the Rosa26 locus. Mice heterozygous for the insertion (LipaKI/WT) were bred to obtain homozygous LipaKI/KI mice. We bred LipaKI/KI, Ldlr-/- mice with LysMCre+/-, Ldlr-/- mice, generating mice on an atherosclerosis-prone Ldlr-/- background to assess the impact of myeloid Lipa overexpression on atherosclerosis. The LysMCre+/-, LipaKI/WT, Ldlr-/- mice (M-LipaKI) demonstrated myeloid-specific Lipa overexpression. LysMCre-/-, LipaKI/WT, Ldlr-/- (Ctrl) littermates were used as controls. Aortas were harvested from Ctrl and M-LipaKI mice fed a Western diet for 16 weeks and subsequently enzymatically digested into single cells. Viable single cells, pooled from three male mice, were subjected to scRNA-seq immediately.