Transcriptional profile of PDGFRa+ Sca-1+ and Sca-1- cells at steady state and at 7, 14 and 28 days post LAD ligation

The cardiac stroma contains multipotent mesenchymal progenitors. However, lineage relationships within cardiac stromal cells are poorly defined. Here, we identify heart-resident PDGFRa+ SCA-1+ cells as cardiac Fibro/Adipogenic Progenitors (cFAPs) and show that they respond to ischemic damage by generating SCA-1- fibrogenic cells. Pharmacological blockade of this differentiation step with an anti-fibrotic tyrosine kinase inhibitor decreases post-myocardial infarction (MI) remodeling and leads to improvement in heart function. To assess differences between Pdgfra+ SCA-1+ and SCA-1- cells, we sorted each subset from the stromal fraction (CD45-/CD31-/ Pdgfra H2BGFP+) of enzymatically dissociated hearts at steady state and 7, 14 and 28 days post left anterior descending (LAD) coronary artery ligation. RNA was extracted using RNeasy (Qiagen) and the transcriptional profile was generated with the Illumina NextSeq 500 using the High Output 150 cycle Kit.