Single-cell transcriptomic atlas of human cardiac arteries

Although the cellular heterogeneity within arterial walls has been explored in mice and nonhuman primates, the cellular composition of human arterial walls remains unclear. We investigated the cellular composition of nondiseased cardiac arteries (3 aortas, 2 pulmonary arteries and 9 coronary arteries) from 3 heart transplantation patients by single-cell RNA sequencing. We created a cell atlas of human nondiseased cardiac arteries, and characterized the cellular compositions in different cardiac arteries. Our results could be used as a reference to identify vascular disease-associated cell populations and help investigate new therapeutic strategies for vascular diseases. Human heart samples were collected from 3 patients with end-stage heart failure undergoing cardiac transplantation. Aortas, pulmonary arteries, and coronary arteries, including right coronary artery, left anterior descending artery, and left circumflex branch, were obtained from 3 patients. Collected samples were sequenced using 10x Genomics 5' V2 single-cell RNA sequencing.