Fig. 4: Gene regulatory network of aortic SMCs and inter-lineage communication analysis of the aortic tissues at the early stage of TAAD.

a Comparative analysis of the gene regulatory networks of SMCs between BAPN (left panel) and CTRL (right panel) reveals dysregulated genes in the early stage of TAAD (7 days after BAPN administration). The node size reflects degree centrality. The top 28 genes ranked by delta degree are colored in red. b The average expression of the top dysregulated genes in SMCs of BAPN and CTRL. c Cell–cell communication networks in the aortic tissues of BAPN (left panel) and CTRL (right panel). The node size reflects the total number of communications for each lineage. The edge color indicates that the ligands are broadcast by the cell lineage in the same color. The line thickness is proportional to the number of broadcast ligands. d The ligand–receptor pairs with significant changes in specificity between any one of the non-SMC lineages and SMCs in BAPN vs CTRL at the early stage of TAAD. SMCs express receptors and receive ligand signals from other lineages. e The representative ligand–receptor pairs with significant changes in specificity between SMCs and the other lineages in BAPN vs CTRL at the early stage of TAAD. SMCs express ligands and broadcast ligand signals for other lineages. In d and e, the dot size reflects the P value of the permutation tests for lineage-specificity, and the dot color denotes the mean of the average ligand–receptor expression in the interacting lineages. CTRL, control; EDO, endothelial cell; FB, fibroblast; MAC, macrophage; SMC, smooth muscle cell; TC, T cell; B cells are not considered due to too few cells.