Single-Cell Transcriptomic Heterogeneity Between Conduit and Resistance Rat Mesenteric Arteries

The vascular endothelium contains morphologically similar cells throughout, but individual cells along the length of a single vascular tree or in different regional circulations function quite dissimilarly. When observations made in large arteries are extrapolated to explain the function of endothelial cells (EC) in the resistance vasculature/microcirculation, only a fraction of these observations are consistent between artery sizes. To what extent endothelial (EC) and vascular smooth muscle (VSMC) cells from different arteriolar segments of the same tissue differ phenotypically at the single-cell level remains unknown. Therefore, single-cell RNA-seq (10x Genomics) was performed using a 10X Genomics Chromium system. Cells were enzymatically digested from large (>300 µm) and small (<150 µm) mesenteric arteries from 6 adult male Sprague-Dawley rats, pooled to create six samples (3 rats/sample, 3 samples/group). Therefore, single-cell RNA-seq (10x Genomics) was performed using a 10X Genomics Chromium system.