Single-Cell RNA Sequencing reveals matrix stiffness induction of endothelial phenotypic modulation and its association with atherosclerosis

Here, we applied single-cell RNA seq to uncover the heterogeneity of endothelial cells (ECs) under different stiffness and TGF-β induction. We identified three distinct EC clusters that was consistenyl showed in all different conditions . Further subclustering analysis revealed finer heterogeneity which were differentially impacted by stiffness and TGF-β. We performed scRNA-seq on human coronary artery endothelial cells (ECs, passage 3-8, Lonza) cultured for 14 days on 4kPa hydrogel or TC, in the presence or absence of TGF-β stimulation. After quality control filtering based on mitochondrial transcript content and total transcript counts, we obtained 21,644 high-quality ECs.