Single cell sequencing of developing heart valves identifies novel cell populations and uncovers interstitial cell heterogeneity

Our study has two main goals. The first is to define a gene expression atlas of heart valve cells and identify cell heterogeneity within postnatal heart valve development. The second is to identify interstitial cell populations involved in ECM remodeling during postnatal heart valve development. Using droplet RNA sequencing, transcriptomes of single cells from P7 and P30 murine aortic and mitral heart valves were analyzed.本研究包含两项核心目标：其一，构建心脏瓣膜细胞的基因表达图谱，并明确出生后心脏瓣膜发育过程中的细胞异质性；其二，筛选出参与出生后心脏瓣膜发育期间细胞外基质（ECM）重塑的间质细胞群。本研究采用液滴RNA测序（droplet RNA sequencing）技术，对出生后第7天（P7）与第30天（P30）小鼠的主动脉瓣及二尖瓣的单细胞转录组进行了分析。